Suffolk County District Attorney investigators Tuesday arrested the wife of a former North Babylon schoolteacher who pleaded guilty in November to having a sexual relationship with a teenage student.  Melissa Cuesta, who has been married to the defendant, Danny Cuesta, since 2004, pleaded not guilty one count of perjury in the first degree at her arraignment in Southampton Town Justice Court.

Melissa Cuesta, 26, of 19 Folsom lane in Coram, testified for two days during her husband's trial in Suffolk County Court.  Prosecutors believe she lied on the stand when she spoke of her husband's alibi for dates in 2003 the prosecution alleged Danny Cuesta was sexually intimate with the teenage rape victim at a Sayville motel.

Mrs. Cuesta told the jury that she and her husband were together in New York City.

Melissa Cuesta, a special education teacher in the West Islip school district, was represented by legal aid at her arraignment before Southampton Town Court Justice Barbara Wilson.  Judge Wilson set cash bail at $10,000, with a bond alternative of $20,000. 

Danny Cuesta of Coram pleaded guilty on November 1, 2006, to one count of third-degree rape, two counts of third-degree criminal sexual act and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.  He was sentenced to 15 months in the county jail.

His trial ended in a mistrial after four days of deliberations when the jury claimed they were deadlocked.