Former Rosarian Teacher Faces 59 Child Porn Charges
By Jorge Milian
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer The daughter of ex-Rosarian Academy teacher Stephen Budd, who is already facing charges of molesting two of his former fourth-grade students, told police that her father videotaped her childhood friends while directing them to dance and touch themselves. Jillian Budd, now 26, notified police of the videotaping in April, according to court documents obtained Friday by The Palm Beach Post. The documents detail an interview West Palm Beach Police had with Budd’s daughter and also spell out 59 additional charges of child pornography that Budd now faces. After executing a search warrant that was prepared June 18, police found 41 images and 19 videos of boys and girls under the age of 12, and girls under the age of 18 having sex with adult males. The videos were described in a probable-cause affidavit as sadomasochistic. However, it is unknown if the girls in the videos are Budd’s former students or his daughter’s friends. Reached Friday by the Post, Jason Weiss, Budd’s attorney, declined comment on the new allegations because he said he had not yet seen the state attorney’s report. Weis did say that he intends to enter a plea of not guilty at Budd’s bond hearing on his original child molestation charge. That hearing is scheduled for next Friday. Budd, 51, is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail. Budd was arrested on April 3 after two of his former students told police he repeatedly cajoled them into sex acts during the 2006-07 school year when the girls were 9 years old. The students told police that Budd would give them “Budd Bucks” — a fake dollar bill with his face on it that could be exchanged for candy — for the sexual acts. For that, he faces two counts of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age, two counts of lewd or lascivious exhibition and one count of lewd or lascivious molestation. After the April arrest, a “distraught” Jillian Budd said she saw her father direct her childhood friends to dance for him in a provocative way, according to the affidavit. In one instance, Budd told one of the girls — referred to in the document as a “friend/classmate” — to change into a St. Francis Catholic School uniform that belonged to Jillian and touch herself in a sexual manner while being videotaped. According to the affidavit, Stephen Budd told his daughter the next day that he destroyed the video. The report notes that it is unknown if he did. Jillian Budd, who could not be reached for comment Friday, is not facing criminal charges. It is unclear when the alleged incident happened, or how old Jillian was at the time, or what school she or her friends attended. Stephen Budd was a second-grade teacher who facilitated summer camp and was a bus driver at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Riviera Beach from 1996 through 2001. The most recent charges against Budd came after a forensic examination of a hard drive found in Budd’s car turned up 41 images and 19 videos that were positively identified as child pornography, the affidavit states. The day he was arrested, Budd called his daughter and asked that she enter his bedroom and swap his personal computer for his work computer. Jillian Budd complied, removing Budd’s personal computer and placing it under the passenger seat of her car. Budd said he needed to get his computer fixed which, Jillian told police, struck her as odd because her father always fixed his own computer. Following Budd’s arrest, Jillian checked her car and found that the laptop was gone. Police found the computer hard drive in Stephen Budd’s vehicle, according to the documents. Asked if he knew specifically what he had in the car, Budd told police: “I don’t know. It’s — it’s school stuff. I’ve got files. I’ve got pamphlets, um, boxes of stuff. Um, I don’t know if the computer’s in there or not.” On the hard drive police found a PDF file labeled “2012 tax return Stephen” contained images of child porn, according to the affidavit, as did a folder named “VIRUS software.” Police said the hard drive was damaged and believed Budd tried destroying the computer in an attempt to hide evidence. Police said that they believe that during a controlled call between the former Rosarian students who accused him, loud crashing noises heard during the call were Budd trying to remove his computer components from the laptop in an attempt to conceal or destroy evidence, the affidavit states. The former Rosarian students, now teenagers, said Budd repeatedly cajoled them into sex acts during the school year, often inviting them to sit under his covered desk during class, where he exposed himself to them just a few feet away from other students. The girls said Budd also asked them to go to the bathroom and take naked pictures of themselves using an instant camera he provided. The girls said he often threw the pictures away quickly after they gave them to him.
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