Teacher Is Charged With Sex Abuse of a Second Student

A Montgomery County teacher awaiting trial in a sex abuse case was arrested again yesterday after a second former pupil told police that the Rockville man touched him inappropriately during tutoring sessions several years ago, police said.

Joseph R. Ballmann, 47, allegedly fondled a former Westland Middle School student in 1995 and 1997 while tutoring the teenager at his Silver Spring home. The student, who is now 24, was in seventh and eighth grade when the alleged abuse occurred, police said.

During tutoring sessions, the English teacher "massaged his shoulders numerous times," Detective Karen Carvajal wrote in a charging document. On one occasion, Ballmann "dragged him into his father's bedroom," where he sexually abused him, according to the charging document.

Ballmann is charged with third-degree sex offense and child abuse. In the previous case, Ballmann was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, third-degree sex abuse and sexual solicitation of a minor.

The first set of charges was filed after a teenager told police that in 2004, when he was 12 and attended Robert Frost Middle School, Ballmann showed him pornography and sexually molested him at Ballmann's Rockville home.

Ballmann's attorney, Stephen Mercer, said his client intends to plead not guilty in both cases. He declined to comment about the allegations.

Ballmann was suspended with pay after his initial arrest. He has been employed by the county school system since 1989 in various capacities. He initially worked as a bus driver and later taught at Westland and Robert Frost.

Ballmann was released on $150,000 bond shortly after the first arrest. Prosecutors filed a motion yesterday seeking to have his bond revoked.

According to the motion, detectives who served a search warrant at Ballmann's home found a pipe bomb, "a significant amount of explosive materials," handcuffs, stun guns, knives, chloroform in a sock, and pepper spray.

Prosecutors attached to the motion two letters, sent to radio station WWDC (101.1 FM) on June 6, that include threats against the detective in the Ballmann case and against President Bush's daughters as well as large-scale violence. In one letter, the writer threatens to hire gang members to "slice up with a chain saw" Carvajal, the detective. The writer also says Ballmann and some allies, including members of al-Qaeda and the gang MS-13, will unleash mayhem in the county this summer.

The letters are signed with the names of local television news personalities. Prosecutors do not allege that Ballmann wrote the letters, but they argue in the motion that the contents "indicate that the defendant is a risk not only to the individuals in the case but a significant risk to the community."

Mercer called that argument preposterous.

"The letters are nothing more than the deranged musings of an unknown person who is not connected to the case," he said. He said Secret Service agents tried to interview Ballmann yesterday morning at the Montgomery County jail and indicated to Mercer that the agency does not believe he wrote them. Mercer said he did not allow the agents to interview Ballmann.

"My client is not a target of their investigation concerning the letters," Mercer added.