A New Jersey middle school teacher was arrested for allegedly acting as muscle in a bizarre Atlantic City casino-hotel scheme involving a prostitute. The educator, who has since been fired, insists she was there “strictly to party” and says the incident was a major misunderstanding.
Amanda Crafts, 35, a former computer teacher at Middle Township Middle School, and Veda Engel, 23, allegedly targeted a man on Oct. 9. According to the alleged victim, the women restrained him while moving $1,250 from his Apple Pay account after using his cellphone’s facial-recognition feature to unlock it.
The encounter reportedly began at the bar inside Caesars Atlantic City, where the unidentified man met Crafts and Engel, both of whom are from Cape May County, according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Post.
The man exchanged phone numbers with Engel. She later contacted him and invited him to a room at Harrah’s Resort, the complaint states.
When he arrived, the alleged victim told police that the two women stripped him. He said Engel began performing a sex act while Crafts held him down, according to the complaint.
Engel allegedly stopped suddenly and told him, “That’s what you get for your $1,250,” Breaking AC reported.
Crafts, who weighs about 180 pounds, allegedly continued restraining the man as Engel held his iPhone in front of his face to activate its facial-recognition system. The man told police that Engel then accessed Apple Pay and made four transfers to her account totaling $1,250, according to the complaint.
Crafts’ attorneys deny that she participated in the alleged theft or restrained the man. They also say she had no idea Engel was allegedly offering sex for money. Crafts is a single mother of four.
“I’ve never been to jail,” Crafts told Judge Timothy Maguire during a video hearing on Oct. 10, according to Breaking AC.
“I’ve never been arrested before. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.
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Crafts’ attorney said she met Engel and the unidentified man at Caesars that night and believed they were heading to a Harrah’s room to continue partying. According to the lawyer, she did not know there might be an arrangement involving money in exchange for sex.
“Amanda Crafts is highly intelligent and wouldn’t participate in anything like that. She was in the room and wanted to leave and didn’t even realize it was a prostitution thing,” attorney Charles Peruto Jr. told The Post. He added that Crafts “is mortified.”
Peruto alleged that the man contacted police only after he prematurely ejaculated and Engel ended the encounter. The attorney said the man was angry because he had paid for an hour of sex but the session ended much sooner.
Crafts was in the room “strictly to party” and had no intention of taking part in prostitution or a scam, her attorney said.
“Maybe the prostitute took advantage of him but my client had nothing to do with it,” Peruto said.
Engel previously faced a prostitution charge in December 2025 after allegedly offering sex for $1,000 to an undercover New Jersey State Police detective at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, Breaking AC reported. She was ordered to pay a summons in that case.
State records show that Crafts and Engel were held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility for six days before being released on Oct. 15.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Crafts had worked as a computer teacher at Middle Township Middle School in Cape May since 2016.
The school district notified families and staff on Oct. 19 that Crafts was “no longer employed by the district.”
“The safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority,” Stephanie DeRose, superintendent of Middle Township Public Schools, wrote in the letter.