Manhattan Beach

Brooklyn high school teacher indicted for producing child porn

September 19, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Jonathan Deutsch, an English teacher from Leon M. Goldstein High School in Brooklyn, was arrested and arraigned in federal court on Wednesday in front of Justice Robert M. Levy of the Eastern District of New York. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese
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A teacher from Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Manhattan Beach was arrested and charged in federal court on Wednesday with five counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

Jonathan Deutsch, 34, allegedly requested explicit images and videos from hundreds of children through Facebook. He is expected to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in front of U.S. District Court Judge Robert M. Levy.

“As alleged, Jonathan Deutsch, a Brooklyn high school teacher, solicited and received sexually explicit material from minors he contacted on Facebook,” stated U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard P. Donoghue. “The protection of innocent children is an utmost priority for this office and our law enforcement partners.”

Deutsch allegedly used Facebook to contact hundreds of minors and used Facebook Messenger to carry on sexually explicit conversations with 45 of them. He convinced four of them to send him nude photos and videos of them masturbating, according to prosecutors. The alleged victims ranged in age from 10 to 16 years old.

Deutsch also sent sexually explicit photos that he represented to be himself to some of the minors, according to prosecutors.

According to court documents, from Jan. 13, 2017 to May 18, 2017, the defendant used multiple Facebook accounts, using aliases such as “Sam Morgan” and “Jay Stern” to engage in sexually explicit conversations with kids aged 10 to 16. He allegedly would instruct the minors to pose in specific ways, to perform sexual acts and to videotape it.

The defendant would often disclose that he was a teacher and was into drugs and children, according to court documents. The defendant allegedly role played with the minors and one time solicited a video of a 16-year-old girl urinating into a cup and drinking the urine, prosecutors charge.

“It is clear from the content of these conversations that the defendant targeted vulnerable, often prepubescent, children and then used his status as a teacher, among other things, to develop a relationship with those children and thereby groom them for exploitation,” prosecutors for the EDNY wrote in a detention memo. “The defendant often bragged about his supposed prior sexual experiences with students and young children. The defendant convinced numerous minors to send him nude images of themselves. And during the course of his communications with John Doe 1 and Jane Does 1-3 alone, the defendant obtained approximately 10 sexually exploitative photos and six videos.”

Deutsch faces a mandatory minimum charge of 15 years in prison if he is convicted of any of the five counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

The government has requested that Deutsch be held without bail because he is a teacher and argued that he, “poses a significant danger to the community and is a flight risk.”

Deutsch previously worked at Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn Tech High School and Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan.

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