Schools
Former MCPS Teacher Charged With Enticing a Minor in New York
A former MCPS teacher has been charged with the enticement of a minor and the possession of child pornography in updates New York.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — A man who worked as a teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools for 25 years has been charged with the enticement of a minor and the possession of child pornography.
Richard W. Scherer, 70, now lives in upstate New York, and is accused of communicating with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl on Instagram. The person behind the other end of the screen was actually from Poaching Predators, a "citizens group" that tries to catch predators and post their encounters confronting them on YouTube.
The Western District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office said that the group met with Scherer outside of a store on Amherst Street in Buffalo, N.Y., and confronted him for trying to meet with a teenage girl. The Office says that Poaching Predators interviewed him for 58 minutes before calling the police.
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The U.S. Attorney's Office looked at the text exchange, and saw that it was " graphic and sexual in nature" and that Scherer texted that he has been a sexual education teacher. The U.S. Attorney said that Scherer has also communicated with what he thought as an 8-year-old girl, but it was actually Predator Poacher.
During a search of Scherer's phone, police say they found two images of child pornography.
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Scherer was reported for inappropriate conduct during his time as an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher in MCPS. An MCPS report released in fragments by the U.S. Attorney's Office says that a student complained that “he pulls her to him and hugs her, that he has patted her rear end and hips, and that he pressures her to each lunch with him.”
The student's mother said that her daughter and her daughter's friend were often pressured to eat with him. In September of 2011, the superintendent of MCPS wrote to the State of Maryland Superintendent of Schools and said Scherer has resigned, and recommended his license be revoked. His license was revoked shortly after.
Scherer faces a sentence of a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life, if he is convicted on these charges.
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