Ex-teacher admits sexually touching 15-year-old West Morris Central student in 2007

Ben Horowitz

A former music teacher and band director at West Morris Central High School pleaded guilty today to sexually touching a 15-year-old student and also sending her text messages with sexual content, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.

The plea by David Scheck, 31, of North Brunswick, came two weeks after jury selection had started for his trial in Superior Court in Morristown, and nearly seven years after the incidents involving the then 24-year-old teacher and the Washington Township teenager.

Under a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office, Scheck pleaded guilty to official misconduct and a reduced charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, acting Prosecutor Fredric Knapp said. Scheck had been indicted on 10 charges, including aggravated sexual assault.

The plea agreement calls for a five-year prison sentence which will require Scheck to serve two years before becoming eligible for parole, Knapp said. Scheck must also forfeit his teacher’s license and will not be allowed to hold public employment in the future, Knapp said. He is to be sentenced on July 18 by Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple.

Scheck admitted “contacting” the victim’s private area for the purpose of sexual gratification, along with sending her text messages and instant messages that were “sexual in nature,” Knapp said.

In June 2007, the girl told police Scheck had touched her sexually in her Washington Township home and again a week later in a band practice room at the school, according to court documents.

The girl said she and Scheck were in love and planned to have sex for the first time the next day at her house, the documents said.

Scheck was employed by the Bloomfield Board of Education when he was arrested in November 2007, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. He was terminated in January 2008, she said.

Scheck, who has been out on bail, has not been teaching since his arrest, according to his attorney, Miles Feinstein.

Source: nj