Teacher, prostitute busted in Atlantic City oral sex shakedown

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New Jersey teacher Amanda Crafts is accused of orchestrating a sex shakedown in Atlantic City with a convicted prostitute.

Cops say the 35-year-old Cape May County middle school computer teacher and sex worker Veda Engel, 23, are now charged with second-degree theft and conspiracy to commit robbery following an early October encounter at an Atlantic City casino.

According to cops, the pair met the victim at a lounge inside Harrah’s casino and allegedly offered him sex for money. Engel is no stranger to the game: She graduated from a Cape May high school in 2021 and was recently charged with prostitution at the nearby Borgata Casino.

Extortion with premise of oral sex

The victim was allegedly restrained during a sexual encounter involving oral sex with Engel. According to the police report, the alleged femme fatales used the phone’s facial recognition technology, resulting in the theft.

Engel allegedly told the man he would only receive oral sex for the $1,250.

Crafts allegedly held the man down while Engel used his phone to make four Apple Pay transactions to her own account. Cops say the take was $1,250.

But Crafts was quick to make excuses, arguing before Atlantic City Judge Timothy Maguire that she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. The victim’s story blew holes in Crafts’ yarn. It was the teacher who held him down while he was being robbed.

The women have since been released and are now awaiting trial. They both need to comply with biweekly court check-ins.

Still listed as a teacher

As of Oct. 17, Amanda Crafts is still listed as a teacher at Middle Township Middle School in Cape May County.

Appearing in front of Judge Christine Smith since her release, Crafts was asked if she could return to her employment, to which she responded that she didn’t know and needed to contact her union after being released.

Meanwhile, a Virginia elementary school teacher who pleaded guilty to multiple felony sex offences involving a young child will not be sentenced until 2027.

Miranda Janeway was pinched in October 2024 after investigators traced child sexual abuse material shared through the messaging platform Kik back to Janeway.

Prosecutors said the twisted teacher confessed to creating and distributing child sexual abuse material involving a toddler who was less than two years old at the time of the crimes. Prosecutors said Janeway also admitted to sexually abusing the child.

Pleaded guilty in November 2025

In November 2025, Janeway pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a child, one count involving bestiality, and three counts related to the production of child sexual abuse material. Under the plea agreement, several additional charges were dismissed.

Cops say evidence recovered from Janeway’s phone included child sexual abuse images and videos, along with related communications sent through private messaging applications and social media.

Janeway was arrested while working at David Harrison Elementary School in Prince George County, where she had been employed for around three months.

Defence attorneys previously cited Janeway’s lack of criminal history and argued that she had been influenced by an online individual identified in court as “Christian.”

Janeway now faces five to 30 years in prison. She is being held without bond in the Riverside Regional Jail.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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