A New Jersey high-school teacher and coach charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student is a noted Ivy League athlete and the scion of an American sports dynasty.
Peter James “PJ” Halas, 29, charged over the weekend with first-degree aggravated sexual assault of a teenage girl, is the great-grand-nephew of football Hall of Famer George “Papa Bear” Halas.
Founder and longtime owner of the Chicago Bears, Halas also coached the team for 40 seasons.
PJ, who played hoops for Dartmouth, is also the nephew of former Columbia University basketball coach Wally Halas, grandson of longtime Bears scout Pete Halas, and great-grandson of Walter Halas, a Notre Dame baseball and basketball coach who also served as a backfield coach for Knute Rockne.
“PJ is a good kid from a very good, very lovely family,” a shocked Ocean County friend of the family said of Halas, who turned himself in to Point Pleasant police Friday night.
Halas, a history teacher, boys’ basketball and golf coach at Point Pleasant HS, was released from jail Sunday on $100,000 cash-and-property bail.
“I cannot believe he’s accused of this; it just isn’t fathomable,” said the friend.
Calls to Halas and his parents, Mariellyn and Peter, a pediatrician and town councilman in Sea Girt, were not returned.
The assaults on the teen began in April and continued into July, according to Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Bob Gasser.
Halas was nabbed after “concerned citizens” learned of the alleged assault and contacted local police, Gasser said.
Halas, who was also slapped with second-degree charges of endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct, faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.