Danny Villa
12-29-08

A former New England Patriot and ex-coach of this year’s state champion Walpole football team surrendered to police in Arizona last night and will return to Massachusetts to face three counts of child rape and three counts of enticing a minor, police and his lawyer said last night.

Danny Villa, 44, of Walpole, “will waive extradition at an Arizona court on Monday and will return to Massachusetts voluntarily to face the charges against him,” Villa’s lawyer, Heather V. Baer, said in a statement. “Mr. Villa intends to plead not guilty in court.”

Villa had flown to Arizona last week. Police said earlier yesterday that his whereabouts were unknown but he was negotiating a surrender. Baer said Villa had planned to surrender Monday, but decided to turn himself in to police in Tucson last night.

Walpole police Chief Richard Stillman said that within the last week, a parent came to police with allegations that Villa had attacked a child. Stillman would not say if the child attends school in Walpole or if the child is related to Villa, who is the father of three girls and a boy.

Former Patriot, Walpole coach accused of sex assault surrenders (12/29/08)

Daniel K. Johnson
12-12-08

A West Tisbury school teacher was arrested on Tuesday amid charges that he provided alcohol and pornographic materials to minors and hosted underage parties at his Vineyard Haven home.

Daniel K. Johnson, 43, was arrested by Tisbury police at his home on Mariner’s Road and charged with five counts of furnishing alcohol to minors, one count of assault and battery and two counts of dissemination of obscenities to minors. Police also confiscated a personal computer from Mr. Johnson’s home.

He was arraigned in Edgartown district court on Wednesday where he entered a plea of not guilty to the charges. He was released on $5,000 bail.

A police incident report requested by the Gazette, with the names of victims and other personal information redacted, states that a parent went to the Tisbury police station on Dec. 1 to report concerns that his teenage son might be receiving alcohol from an adult.

The nine-page report by officer Daniel Hanavan said the father found his son with a bottle of 100-proof vodka; the father subsequently took the bottle to an Island package store and asked who purchased it. An employee checked the UPC scanning code on the bottle and determined the time and date the bottle was purchased.

During a review of the store’s security video, the father recognized the person on the tape as Mr. Johnson, an industrial arts teacher at the West Tisbury elementary school.

Elementary Teacher, EMT Arrested for Pornography (12/12/08)

Christopher French
10-30-08

A special education teacher's aide in Winchester has been indicted on charges he used the Internet to lure girls into pornography and sex, raping 1 of them.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said 28-year-old Christopher French groomed girls through online chats on Facebook and MySpace. He allegedly sent and received naked photographs and tried to entice the girls to meet him in his hot tub.

In one case, Leone says French raped a 14-year-old girl at her house. French was an aide at McCall Middle School. He was suspended without pay in June, after his arrest on one count of child enticement. He was indicted Thursday on 18 counts of child rape, enticement and pornography. An arraignment date has not yet been set.

Mass. teacher’s aide arraigned on rape (11/05/08)
Mass. school aide indicted on child rape charges (10/30/08)
Principal’s son arrested on ‘child enticement’ charges (06/30/08)

Norman J. Finizio
10-28-08

The case against a Quincy schoolteacher accused of sex crimes against a child has moved to Superior Court.

Norman J. Finizio, 46, of 1 White Island Road, Halifax, was indicted by a grand jury, which moved the case to Superior Court, where most felony cases are tried.

On Oct. 7, he pleaded innocent to charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, providing obscene material to a child, and possession of child pornography.

Finizio was originally arraigned in May in Plymouth District Court, on a single charge of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

Police say Finizio, a special-education teacher now on unpaid leave, showed a 9-year-old girl pornographic videos and asked her to fondle him on several occasions in 2006 and 2007.

Grand jury indicts Quincy schoolteacher on child-sex charges (10/28/08)
Quincy teacher from Halifax accused of assaulting girl, 9 (05/23/08)
Quincy teacher from Halifax accused of assaulting 9-year-old girl (05/23/08)

Tyrone Forbes
10-25-08

A former Seven Hills Charter Public School music teacher pleaded guilty today to child rape charges in Worcester Superior Court.

Tyrone D. Forbes, 49, of 84 Chatham St., Apt. 2, was arrested in April on three charges of child rape involving a 15-year-old boy who was not a student at the school.

Judge Mary-Lou Rup today sentenced Mr. Forbes to two concurrent terms of 2 1/2 years in the House of Correction with 18 months to serve and the balance suspended for three years. The judge also placed Mr. Forbes on probation for three years, and ordered him to have no contact with the victim; no unsupervised contact with a child under 16 years old; to register as a sex offender and to enter into treatment, and to submit to GPS monitoring, according to court records.

Charter school teacher indicted on sex charge (05/14/08)
Worcester teacher charged with statutory rape (04/03/08)
Worcester choir director charged with raping teenager (04/03/08)
Teacher-Pastor Charged With Statutory Rape (04/03/08)

William H. Constable
10-02-08

A Nantucket man who died two months after being sentenced to federal prison on child pornography charges died of natural causes, according to the office of the New York City Chief Medical Examiner.

William “Howe” Constable died from heart disease, Grace Burgess, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, said yesterday.

Constable - who was sentenced in June to 25 years in federal prison - died August 13 while at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He was 55.

In March, Constable, a former assistant coach for the Nantucket High School sailing team, pleaded guilty to producing pornography and bringing it into the United States.

Court records indicate that, starting in the early 1990s, he made trips to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, where he photographed and videotaped himself having sex with young children.

He was arrested in October 2007 after leaving a camera behind in an Hyannis hotel. A hotel employee looked at images on the camera in hopes of identifying its owner and discovered photographs and videos of young girls being sexually assaulted, according to court records.

Child pornographer died of natural causes (10/02/008)
Cause of Constable’s death still unexplained (08/19/08)
Mass. man convicted of child porn dies in prison (08/15/08)
Nantucket Man Gets 25 Years For Child Porn (06/11/08)

Christopher P. Westfall
09-13-08

A former Sutton schoolteacher imprisoned in Rhode Island last year for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl pleaded guilty today to charges of molesting the same victim in Millbury and possessing child pornography on his computer.

Christopher P. Westfall, 31, formerly of Millbury and Sutton, was sentenced last May to 20 years’ imprisonment, with seven years to be served, after pleading no contest in Providence County Superior Court in Rhode Island to three counts of second-degree child molestation. The charges related to a sexual relationship prosecutors said Mr. Westfall, a former fifth-grade teacher in Sutton, had with a 13-year-old Barrington, R.I., girl between June 2004 and January 2005.

The balance of Mr. Westfall’s prison sentence in Rhode Island was suspended for 13 years with probation.

Today, Mr. Westfall pleaded guilty in Worcester Superior Court to two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child for molesting the 13-year-old on two occasions between July 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2004, in Millbury. He also pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer on March 30, 2005, in Sutton.

As recommended by Assistant District Attorney Joseph J. Reilly III and Mr. Westfall’s lawyer, Gary G. Pelletier, Judge Bruce R. Henry sentenced Mr. Westfall to 10 years’ probation, to run concurrently with the 13 years of probation he will be on in Rhode Island once he is released from prison there.

Westfall pleads guilty in child molestation case (09/12/08)
Ex-Sutton teacher sentenced (05/22/07)
Ex-teacher jailed for molestation (05/22/07)

Edgar Selavka
07-10-08

Former preschool teacher Edgar L. Selavka will spend one year in jail after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Selavka, 50, of Easthampton, worked with young children at the People's Institute and the Center for Early Childhood Education at Smith College. He was also the director of Christian education at Edwards Church.

He pleaded guilty in April to 11 counts of possession of child pornography in Hampshire Superior Court. Selavka was sentenced today to 2½ years in the Hampshire County Correctional Center, with one year to be served and the rest suspended with seven years of probation.

Preschool teacher pleads guilty in child porn case (07/09/08)
Former teacher pleads guilty to child pornography charges (04/22/08)
Preschool teacher in Northampton faces child porn charges (01/19/07)
Church teacher faces porn counts (01/19/07)

Russell Goyette
06-05-08

A former Seekonk High School principal has been charged with possession of child pornography after authorities say they found thousands of sexually explicit images of children - some of them he allegedly viewed while still the school principal.

Russell Goyette, 61, principal from 1992 to 2001, was ordered held in jail on $10,000 cash bail after pleading innocent Thursday in Dedham Superior Court to 16 counts of possession of child pornography.

Goyette was also set to become a swimming instructor at an unnamed summer camp in Foxboro for children ages 5 to pre-teens but a court order by Judge Janet Sanders will prevent him from taking the job. At the request of prosecutors, Goyette was ordered to have no contact or employment with children, to stay away from parks and playgrounds and have no access to computers or the Internet should he post his bail.

Former Hull High principal arrested on child porn charge (06/05/08)
Former Seekonk High principal charged in child porn case (06/05/08)
Ex-Hull principal nabbed on child porn charges (06/05/08)
Former Hull High principal pleads innocent to child porn charges (06/05/08)
Former Hull principal faces child porn charges (06/05/08)

Gregg Woodward
03-31-08

A Foxboro High School English teacher was arrested and charged today with possession of child pornography, following an FBI investigation.

Gregg Woodward, 44, of 31 Oliver St. in Milford, who is his 12th year teaching at Foxboro High, has been suspended without pay, Superintendent Chris Martes said Monday in a message to high school parents.

"At this time, we have no reason to believe that any school computers were used or that any inappropriate activity took place in Foxboro," Martes said in a message sent to the home phones of high school parents via the school district's new ConnectEd system.

The crisis team includes guidance counselors, psychologists, nurses and social workers who will be working with students and faculty. The youth crisis officer is also a member of the team.

Foxborough Teacher Arrested and Charged with Possession of Child Pornography (3/31/08)
Foxboro High teacher charged with possession of child porn (3/31/08)

John "Jack" Donovan Jr.
02-12-08

A former high school football coach and health care executive was sent to state prison for three years yesterday after pleading guilty to repeatedly sexually abusing a young female relative.

John "Jack" Donovan Jr., 61, of 18 Dix Road, Ipswich, pleaded guilty to child rape, unnatural acts with a child, and indecent assault and battery on a child during a hearing yesterday afternoon in Salem Superior Court, where his victim, now nearly 18, tearfully asked for an apology.

Donovan did not apologize. Donovan was the head football coach at Georgetown High School and a vice president for finance at a health care company when he was charged in 2003. The girl, then 13, told a friend, and then her mother, that Donovan had been molesting her for three years but that she had been afraid to tell, prosecutor Jessica Connors said.

Ex-coach pleads guilty in child rape, gets 3 years in prison (2/12/08)
Former Georgetown coach guilty of rape (2/12/08)

Scott Simoncini
01-22-08

A West Boylston teacher will be arraigned Tuesday in Worcester on charges that he "distributed material harmful to minors over the internet".

Scott Simoncini was arrested by Massachusetts State Police on Friday.

Simoncini is from Worcester, and has been a history teacher at West Boylston Middle/High School for the past five years. He had also been the school's Junior Varsity Baseball Coach until this year.

West Boylston School Superintendent Thomas J. Kane told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that the charges do not involve any students at the school or other children in the town.

West Boylston teacher pleads guilty, gives up job in Internet case (3/20/08)
Catching sexual predators like ’shooting fish in a barrel (1/23/08)
Teacher accused of online explicit messages (1/23/08)
Teacher denies cybersex charges (1/23/08)
Port city police assist in arrest of online predator (1/23/08)
West Boylston teacher arraigned on Internet charges (1/22/08)
West Boylston Teacher Arrested For Internet Crime (1/22/08)
West Boylston teacher charged with Internet crime (1/21/08)