A former volunteer Sunday school teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts involving the sexual molestation of young children who were under his care during classes at a Chandler church, the Maricopa County Attorney's office said.
Police arrested Terence Greenwood, 63, last December in connection with the molestation of a 5-year-old girl.
The abuse occurred during church services in a classroom designated for children's Sunday school sessions at the Chandler United Methodist Church, which at the time was on Chandler Boulevard near Arizona Avenue. The abuse also happened at Greenwood's home.
The Arizona Court of Appeals has agreed to hear arguments over a Maricopa County Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss a sexual misconduct case against former Scottsdale Saguaro High School assistant football coach Tom Porras.
Judge Helene Abrams ruled in February to grant defense attorney Amy Nguyen’s motion that Scottsdale police had violated Porras’ Fifth Amendment constitutional right to remain silent when he told officers three times during questioning that he wanted to talk to a lawyer.
However, Porras, now 50, continued to answer questions from officers about an alleged “athletic massage” he gave to a 17-year-old girl at his home in April 2007, when she was wearing a bikini. Porras admitted to performing an inappropriate act over the girl after the former substitute teacher pulled down her bikini bottoms as she was resting over an exercise ball, according to court documents.
A substitute teacher formerly in the Cumberland County school system has pleaded guilty to an information to the charge of statutory rape and will face a sentencing hearing in Criminal Court on Sept. 26.
Heather Michelle Chesser, 27, who at the time of her arrest in January listed a Griever's Chapel Rd. address, was originally indicted by the Cumberland County Grand Jury on two counts each of statutory rape by an authority figure and sexual battery by an authority figure.
In an information filed with the court by her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Cynthia Lyons, and accepted by Assistant District Attorney General Gary McKinzie and Judge Leon Burns, Chesser waived her right to grand jury action and pleaded guilty to the new charge.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) last week arrested 63-year-old Herbert “Herb” Allen on a charge of aggravated assault with sexual motivation involving a 13-year-old school student. Allen is employed as a custodian at the Model Creek School located on Hays Ranch Road in Peeples Valley. The 13-year-old student victim told her mom that during late June of, Allen requested her to meet him in a back room to talk. She complied and once inside the room with Allen, he gave her a hug.
Allen then allegedly followed the hug by kissing the 13-year-old on the lips for several seconds. The whole ordeal made the victim feel very uncomfortable and she eventually reported Allen’s actions to her mother. Deputies also learned that Allen had given the victim “special” hugs in the past, would hold her hands, and look her over when they were in the same area of the school. These actions by Allen caused the victim to remain uncomfortable whenever in his presence.
County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced today that Jeremy Ross Calvert, 21 (DOB 9/2/86), has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and lifetime probation for charges related to sexual contact with a student at Higley High School.
Calvert, who worked at the Gilbert school as an aide to the band instructor, pled guilty on May 22, 2008 to two counts of Sexual Conduct with a Minor, class six felonies. The sentence was issued on June 27, 2008 in the courtroom of Judge David Udall.
According to a Gilbert Police probable cause statement, Calvert had sexual contact with a female student in a sound proof practice room. The victim was taking a private drum lesson from Calvert at the time. "Our schools cannot tolerate sexual predators to be among its students," said Thomas. "I am grateful that this defendant got the maximum prison sentence."
The school board accepted the resignation of Scott Zemojtel, 32, at a meeting Thursday night. Zemojtel was escorted from class by school officials April 17, two days after the school became aware of the situation.
He was accused of having sex more than 20 times with a girl who was 17 years old when the alleged relationship began. Zemojtel will not face criminal charges. Police said that the victim, now 18, refused to assist them in the investigation. Zemojtel and the student met at the beginning of the school year when the girl started his class, police records show.
Court documents show a former Surprise charter-school teacher has pleaded not guilty in three felony cases that charge he inappropriately touched female students and had child pornography on his personal computers.
Victor Scott McPeak Jr., 37, faces charges in U.S. District Court and Maricopa County Superior Court after he was caught up in three separate investigations earlier this year.
McPeak had taught fifth-graders at Arizona Charter Academy in Surprise for nearly 5½ years.
Former Thatcher Art teacher Stephen Hume’s pleaded guilty to 6 counts of voyeurism and surreptitious photography, one for each victim. He was sentenced to spend one year in the Graham County Jail.
His crime was discovered after one of his victims found a camera/video recording device while she was changing into clothes for an art project. Hume would instruct the girls to change in a storage closet where he had crudely set up a surveillance system to record them in a state of undress.
Upon completion of his probation, his probation officer may recommend Hume be removed from the sex offender registration.
Paradise Valley High School teacher was arrested Wednesday and accused of sexual misconduct with a minor, authorities said.
Phoenix police said the parents of the victim -- a 16-year-old male student whose identity was not released -- contacted the school about a possible sexual relationship between their son and Jennifer Mally, an English teacher and cheerleading coach, that may have been going on since October 2006. School officials notified police and Mally, 26, was arrested at the school's administrative offices and immediately placed on administrative leave.
Mally was booked into the Maricopa County jail in downtown Phoenix on 29 counts of sexual conduct with a minor, police said.
Former Apache Junction teacher and youth pastor Bobby Kennedy was arrested by U.S. Marshals Tuesday in Lawton, Oklahoma after being on the run for more than two years.
Kennedy was originally arrested in early 2005 when he was accused of molesting several teenage students at Morningstar Academy, a small charter school in Apache Junction. He posted $150,000 bail, but failed to appear for a Pinal County Superior Court hearing.
According to the East Valley Tribune, the Apache Junction police placed him on their “most wanted” list after he disappeared sometime after August 23, 2005. Soon after that, his mother and the school’s principal, Carolyn Kennedy, pleaded no contest to charges of failing to report abuse of a minor.
For six months, teacher Angela Csader walked into her kindergarten classroom with a secret.
The 25-year-old Queen Creek woman was arrested in July on suspicion of having sex with a 16-year-old Gilbert boy - a boy who fathered her child.
Yet officials at Anthem Elementary School and the Florence Unified School District said they knew nothing about it. She continued to teach students during a half-year span when she appeared multiple times before a Maricopa County court and was on supervised release with a curfew.
"Because it was out of our county and jurisdiction, there were limited ways we could find out about it," district spokesman Larry Cline said. "We don't check the Web sites every day for this."
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The Arizona Court of Appeals has agreed to hear arguments over a Maricopa County Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss a sexual misconduct case against former Scottsdale Saguaro High School 
