A veteran Manhattan teacher was caught allegedly forging an error-riddled jury duty letter that she used to miss 15 random days over nine months.
Mona Lisa Tello, who was recruited from Puerto Rico by the city to teach as a bilingual science teacher in 1998, misspelled “trial” as “trail,” “cited” as “sited,” and “manager” as “manger” in her note from the Superior Court of New Jersey.
The High School of Graphic Communication Arts teacher also got the easily Googable address, telephone and fax numbers of the court wrong in a letter she submitted to excuse her absences.
The letter oddly claimed that her jury duty ran on various days from Sept. 16, 2010 through May 31, 2011 rather than for a short, consecutive period.
She was busted in June when her principal called the court and learned that the real letter had been a deferral of jury duty.
Tello was arrested at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and charged with forgery in the second degree, criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.
Department of Education officials said Tello agreed to resign irrevocably as of Jan. 15 and to pay back more than $3,350 in unmerited pay, rather than face a termination hearing.
Tello did not respond to a phone call or email seeking comment.