Fmr. teacher speaks out about sex allegations

NEW YORK

"My life is destroyed," Alini Brito said.

Brito says she's trying to clear her name.

"I've been called every name possible, from slut to cheating wife, and it's not fair," Brito said.

The 31-year-old is speaking out now, just over a month after the City Department of Education fired her from her teaching job at Brooklyn's James Madison High School.

"I'm saying I'm innocent," Brito said.

The headlines were humiliating after the incident.

In November 2009, two teachers, Brito and Cindy Mauro, had allegedly been caught in a tryst in a third floor classroom.

There were statements from witnesses, including custodian who claimed the lights were off in the room, and a school safety agent who said she saw Brito: "Naked on the floor, like in a birthing position."

The salacious story made Brito and Mauro front page news across the country and on a path to losing their jobs.

But Brito believes the investigation into the incident at the school was flawed.

"I was not naked from the waist up," Brito said.

She claims that night she wasn't feeling well because she's hypoglycemic.

She says she and Mauro went to room 337 in the school so she could check her blood sugar.

Brito says she took her sweater off, revealing an undershirt and that Cindy Mauro then put the sweater under her head, and that was it.

"When people say there was sex going on, when no one says there was sex going on in any of the transcripts, it's just abusive," Brito said.

While a state arbitrator's report obtained by Eyewitness News confirms that, overall testimony in the case fell against Brito and Mauro with the arbitrator concluding: "It is more likely than not that (Alini Brito) was observed in a classroom engaging in what appeared to be a sexual encounter with a co-worker."

But despite the Arbitrator's findings, Brito continues to maintain her innocence.

"Why did you feel it was necessary to speak out now?" asked Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Pegues.

"It was so traumatizing to see my son and husband," Brito said.

"Do you think you are at least guilty of bad judgment?" Pegues asked.

"Absolutely not," Brito said.

"Some people watching this might say, 'I don't believe her,'" Pegues said.

"That's fine," Brito concluded.

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