Police Believe There Are Other Possible Victims in Case of Teacher Accused of Sex Assault
By Alexandra Seltzer
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Just hours after a county judge denied bail for a Palm Beach County school teacher accused of sexually assaulting a former student, West Palm Beach’s police chief called on parents to come forward if their children claim they also were assaulted by the 51-year-old man. Stephen Budd was arrested late Wednesday at his West Palm Beach apartment, not long after a former student of his at Rosarian Academy School, a private Catholic school in West Palm Beach, told police that during the 2006-07 school year, Budd would give them “Budd bucks,” which she explained was candy in return for sexual acts. The girls were 9 years old at the time of alleged abuse. The former students shared an oath and didn’t want anyone to know about what happened, a city police spokesman said. “We, based on our investigation, feel that he is a serial offender,” West Palm Beach Police Chief Vincent Demasi said Thursday at police headquarters. “We’re very confident that there are additional victims out there.” Budd, who says on his personal website that he had a traumatic childhood and a broken marriage, faces charges of three counts of sexual assault, two counts of cruelty toward a child, two counts of battery and two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior. Budd works with adult “higher functioning” special education students at South Tech Academy, a charter school in Boynton Beach. He has also taught at Delray Youth Vocational High School and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Riviera Beach. He was a staff therapist at Renaissance Institute in Boca Raton. Demasi said the schools he has worked at “are at risk of having victims in the past.” He would not say why he believes there may be further cases. The allegations surfaced when the former student at Rosarian told police that Budd, who was her homeroom teacher at the time of the alleged abuse, contacted her through Facebook last week. She then told her parents that when she and another student were 9 years old and in fourth grade, Budd would assault them on a daily basis at the school on North Flagler Drive. The girl told police that one time, after a sex act with Budd, she threw out her soiled clothing because she feared her parents would find out what happened. Budd also allegedly told the girls to perform sexual acts on each other and told them to take naked pictures of each other with the class Polaroid camera. “We are cooperating fully with local law enforcement in the investigation so that the facts associated with this alleged incident … are brought to light as quickly and comprehensively as possible,” Rosarian Academy’s principal Virginia Devine said. “Nothing is more important to us at Rosarian Academy than the safety and well-being of our students. … Our prayers are with the families involved.” Devine sent an email to parents of students at Rosarian Thursday notifying them of the allegations. Budd was arrested outside his apartment after police listened in on a call between him and his accuser and suspected that he was getting ready to flee. He apologized on the phone but never to anything specific, a probable-cause affidavit released Thursday said. Budd has no prior arrest record in Palm Beach County, records show. Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge James Martz on Thursday morning denied bail for Budd, saying the charges were “too serious” to address at his first appearance hearing. About six hours after the court hearing, West Palm Beach police gathered to send out the message that there may be other students who fell victim to Budd’s behavior. A woman who said her daughter once attended Rosarian Academy called The Palm Beach Post after the arrest and said many parents were calling each other about the case. Budd has been employed with the Boynton Beach charter school since August 2008 and helps the special education students with job coaching and other services to help them maintain employment and become self-sufficient. “He came to us lily-white, with absolutely nothing on his record but good stuff,” South Tech founder Jim Kidd said, adding that he’s “surprised” by Budd’s arrest. “He will not be back with students in any way shape or form until this matter resolves one way or another,” Kidd said. He added that, if Budd does not self-report his arrest, that will be grounds to terminate him. According to Budd’s resume, he was a second-grade teacher at St. Francis of Assisi who also ran the school’s summer camp for five years. He wrote in his resume that he was the school’s “sole bus driver” and also prepared the children for Holy Communion and First Reconciliation. Budd was a staff therapist at the Renaissance Institute in the mid-1990s. “Any place where this individual was an instructor runs a significant risk of him having offended at that location. We would be interested in any information for any of these schools in the county that he may have instructed at,” Demasi said. The state Department of Children and Families opened an investigation into Budd, a divorced father of three adult children, this week. “… We are working closely with our law enforcement partners. These are serious allegations, and as with all of our investigations, the welfare and safety of the children involved are paramount,” said DCF’s southeast regional managing director Dennis Miles.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.