School Teacher Arrested for Computer Crimes Against Girl

According to the Manchester Police, detectives have arrested a teacher at a local elementary school for prohibited use of computer services earlier today, according to a press statement.

Manchester Police Detectives Matthew Solari and Rob Tremblay started an investigation on Dec. 6, 2014, after an initial report was taken from the father of a pre-teen female. The young girl attends a local elementary school within the city of Manchester. She stated the crime involved a social media site with an unknown subject who was posing as a young girl.

Both detectives deal with computer related crimes, so they reached out to available resources to assist in the investigation. They utilized the assistance of Homeland Security, Maine State Police and the State of Maine Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, as well as the Manchester School District. The thorough investigation revealed the victim had been communicating with a person who misrepresented their age and gender. The unsuspecting victim thought she was communicating with a female student within her age range. However, Solari realized the victim, who had shared inappropriate images of herself (at his request), was actually corresponding with an adult male, later identified as Paul Johnson-Yarosevich, 34, Acton, Maine.

Detectives were able to identify the person of interest with the assistance of Maine State Police and realized he was employed by the Manchester School District. The physical education teacher has been employed by the city of Manchester, NH since 2005. They executed a search warrant at his Acton, Maine residence on Friday April 3rd and also notified the Manchester School District about the investigation, which prompted a meeting earlier today. Police detectives, school administrators and the teacher in question met at school district headquarters today.

Detectives placed him into custody without incident. He was booked at police headquarters and transported to Hillsborough County House of Corrections due to the fact he was unable to post his $5,000.00 cash/surety bail. He was charged with Prohibited Use of Computer Services (F) for “knowingly using the internet to attempt to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a person.”

Due to the sensitivity of the case, no further details will be released until the completion of the investigation. It is too early to confirm if this is an isolated incident, so the investigation remains open.