In his sex abuse trial, Wasim Muhammad testified that four of his six wives were 18 when he met them

Camden School Advisory Board President Wasim Muhammad told a jury Wednesday that he married his former student when she was 18, and denied her accusations that the relationship started with his sexual abuse when he was her middle school teacher years before.

During Muhammad’s three hours on the stand, he told the seven-member jury of his sex abuse civil trial before Superior Court Judge John Kennedy that he was grateful for the opportunity for them “to hear my side” in response to the “heinous allegations” from a lawsuit lodged in 2021 by the former student.

Two of his wives also testified, while his other wives and some of his 17 children were in the courtroom.

Under questioning by his lawyer Troy Archie, Muhammad denied allegations that he began a sexual relationship with the former student in 1994 when he was her social studies teacher at Cooper B. Hatch Middle School. He also disputed her contention that the two engaged in a threesome with one of his wives and that he took the plaintiff to a porn theater and forced her to have sex with a stranger while he watched and masturbated.

“No sir,“ he said. “Absolutely not.”

» READ MORE: Who is Wasim Muhammad, Camden’s school board president accused of sexually abusing a student?

The woman, now 45, filed the lawsuit under a state law passed in 2019 that allows victims of child sexual abuse to sue their abusers until they turn 55. The Inquirer is not identifying her because it does not name victims in sexual assault cases without their consent.

She alleged that Muhammad began grooming her for a relationship when she was a seventh-grader, and that the alleged abuse continued even after she moved out of state. The lawsuit also alleged that district employees who knew about the relationship failed to stop it.

Muhammad, 56, a minister and prominent community activist in Camden, talked explicitly about his marital situation Wednesday. He told the jury he is legally married to Stephanie, his childhood sweetheart, and has four more wives under his Islamic faith. He mentioned for the first time Wednesday another marriage to another woman that ended previously, he said.

Having multiple wives as he does, Muhammad said, is “an exception and not the rule. It’s very controversial,” he said.

Muhammad said he married the plaintiff in 1997 when she returned from living in the South and came to live with him. There were four witnesses present for their ceremony as mandated by the Muslim faith, he said. Two are dead, and he could not recall the names of the other two witnesses, he said.

“Names and dates get murky,” he said under cross-examination by Jeffrey Fritz, the plaintiff’s lawyer. The plaintiff has denied that the two were ever married.

Muhammad said he met his second wife, Chabree, when she was an 18-year-old high school senior working at the Cherry Hill Mall. They married three years later in 1997, the same year he said he married the plaintiff, when Muhammad was almost 30.

Muhammad testified that four of his six Muslim wives, which included the plaintiff, were 18 when he met them.

“You see a pattern here?” Fritz asked.

“If you want to say so,” Muhammad answered.

Asked by his lawyer about the plaintiff’s allegation that she was forced into a threesome, Muhammad denied that it happened. During a deposition in August, he refused to answer a question about whether it happened, pleading his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Fritz asked him Wednesday why he was able to answer in court.

“The context of this setting, I believe, was more appropriate for me to answer,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad bristled when Fritz questioned him about another sexual relationship he had with Nicole Batts, a former Hatch teacher who said she saw the plaintiff and Muhammad leaving his Camden home during the school day. When Muhammad was with her, he said, he had been married to Stephanie for several years.

“I didn’t know we were in moral court,” Muhammad said.

But he said he prayed for forgiveness for having sex with women other than his wives.

“This is why we Muslims pray five times a day,” he said.

Muhammad, a minister at Muhammad’s Temple No. 20 for 15 years, has said the relationship with the plaintiff ended in 1998 because his legal wife Stephanie objected. Stephanie testified she had seen the plaintiff at the temple but was unaware of their relationship.

“I didn’t know about her,” she testified Wednesday. Muhammad should have advised her that he was adding another member to their family, she said.

Stephanie Muhammad and Chabree Muhammad, the final witnesses in the case, both testified that their husband doesn’t provide financial support for them and their children, but said they could seek assistance if needed.

» READ MORE: The 16 students at this tiny Muslim school in Camden learn everything from literature and religion to music and chess

Speaking publicly about her experiences for the first time during testimony last week, the plaintiff said she was a virgin before Muhammad, and he told her, “Now you’re a woman.” She was 14.

“I ask myself why did this happen?” she said. “Why did he do this to me? Who would do this to a 13-year-old girl? There are no answers for me.’”

Married and the mother of two teenage sons and an adult daughter who has sat through the trial, the woman lives in the South and is a first-grade teacher. An expert said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In addition to Muhammad, the lawsuit names the Camden City School District. An arbitrator who reviewed the files and depositions recommended a $1 million settlement that would have made Muhammad liable for 60% of that amount, but that offer was rejected.

Muhammad took a leave of absence from the advisory board in January, pending the outcome of the case after Gov. Phil Murphy called for his resignation. A school board can remove a member for three consecutive absences; Muhammad has missed six. Muhammad has served on the school advisory board since 2013 and has been president since 2020.

Both sides rested their cases Wednesday afternoon and the jury was expected to hear closing arguments on Thursday. The jury will decide whether anyone has civil liability, and whether damages should be awarded.