Ex-rosarian Teacher Pleads Not Guilty to 59 Child Pornography Charges

By Daphne Duret
Palm Beach Post
August 24, 2013

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/ex-rosarian-teacher-pleads-not-guilty-to-59-child-/nZZ2W/

[with video]

Jailed former Palm Beach County teacher Stephen Budd was arraigned on 59 child pornography charges Friday morning, even as he faces earlier charges that he molested two of his former students.

Budd, who taught at the Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach at the time of the alleged lewd acts with two fourth-grade students, was not present for Friday morning’s hearing before Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen Miller.

Budd’s attorney, Jason Weiss, entered a plea of not guilty to the latest charges on his behalf.

Both defense attorneys and prosecutors in the case are expected to appear in court again in November.

Budd’s daughter, Jillian, 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. The documents detail an interview West Palm Beach police had with Budd’s daughter and also spell out the 59 additional charges of child pornography that Budd now faces.

After carrying out 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.

Budd, 51, is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail.

He 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.