A former Bronx public charter school teacher was arrested and charged last week for enticing four minor victims to engage in sexual activity, transporting them across state lines to engage in sexual acts and inducing one minor to produce child pornography.
Jesus Concepcion, 48, of Simpsonville, South Carolina, was arrested Aug. 7 and faces life in prison.
“As alleged, Jesus Concepcion abused his position as a teacher at a public school in the Bronx to engage in sexual relationships with several of his students,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “Concepcion sexually exploited those students, who were minors, at the public school, in and around the Bronx, and in other states. Together with our partners in the FBI, we will work tirelessly to ensure that anyone who engages in this type of conduct will be subject to the full force of the law.”
According to the investigation, Concepcion was a music teacher and orchestra instructor at a public charter middle school in the Bronx from 2000-2007. He allegedly lured four of his students into sexual relationships and the victims were as young as 12-years-old at the time of the abuse.
From 2002-2007, Concpcion singled out the victims for personal attention. He gave them money, clothing, jewelry and other gifts, and provided them with alcohol. He told several of the victims that they were in romantic relationships with him and provided each of them with a cellphone so that they could communicate with him without their parents’ knowledge. Concepcion used the cellphones he provided and other devices to maintain his “relationships” with the minors and to arrange sexual encounters.
Concepcion engaged in sexual intercourse with the victims in various locations, including in the school’s music room, in the back room of the auditorium, in his car, at motels, at his residences and after some of the minors left school, at their out-of-state high schools.
On numerous occasions, he brought the minors from the school to other locations in the Bronx and motels in New Jersey. On at least one occasion, Concepcion had sexual intercourse with one minor in a New Jersey motel against her will.
Concepcion also instructed one victim to take naked photographs of herself and to send them to him. He also attempted to induce another one of the minors to take sexually explicit photographs.
