Feb 25, 2008 -
Bradley Dieffenbacher, 32, a math teacher at M.S. 190Q, has been arrested and charged with allegedly having inappropriate online relationships with eight of his 12 and 13-year-old male students.
The Queens district attorney charges the 32-year-old had sexually explicit conversations with the boys over instant messenger several times since April. He is also alleged to have directed them to pornographic websites and used a webcam to watch one of the boys masturbate.
Dieffenbacher resigned on February 14 after being questioned by investigators. He had been an employee of the Department of Education since 2000.
ARRAIGNED He was arraigned on charges of one count of Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance, three counts of Attempted Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance, one count of Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child, three counts of Attempted Promoting of a Sexual Performance by a Child and eight counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
District Attorney Queens Office Press Release (dated Feb 25, 2008)
Times-Ledger (Feb 28) - According to comments left on Dieffenbacher's MySpace page by some of his students asking where he was, why he was not in school and when he would be coming back, the children were not told the reason for his absence or that he would not be returning to school.
ONLINE COMMENTS Daily-News (Mar 4) - The newspaper is still following online comments about Dieffenbacher who also had Web profiles on Facebook and Xanga.
Online conversations months earlier seemed to fit the claims by law enforcement officials. In one 90-minute chat with a student still available online, Dieffenbacher alludes to masturbation. The conversations that landed Dieffenbacher in trouble occurred between April 1, 2007, and Feb. 20, and were directed at eighth-graders, authorities said.GUILTY PLEA April 7 - Dieffenbacher pleaded guilty to attempted use of a child in a sexual performance. Prosecutors say that as part of a plea agreement, 32-year-old Bradley Dieffenbacher will give up his teaching license and register as a sex offender.
He is expected to be sentenced June 16 to six months in jail - not prison - and 4 1/2 years of probation.
