Ex-L.I. Principal Gets 60 Days In Prison, 10 Years' Probation For Sex With Teen
MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A former Long Island school principal was sentenced to 60 days in prison and 10 years' probation Wednesday, after pleading guilty to having sex with a teenage boy.
John O'Mard, who had been the principal of J.W. Dodd Middle School in Freeport, changed his plea to guilty last fall – admitting that he had unconsensual sex with the 16-year-old boy he had met online. O'Mard will have to register as a sex offender as part of the sentencing.
When he was arrested and charged in 2013, police said O'Mard arranged to meet the 16-year-old boy on Sept. 15, 2012 after the pair met on the men's sex website Grindr.
O'Mard was accused of picking up the teen in his car and driving him back to Freeport, where he allegedly coerced the underage minor to engage in various sex acts with him in the basement of his house.
The Nassau County District Attorney's office said the boy did not ever agree to sex.
The teen some months later told a friend about the encounter, police said. The friend then notified the school, and the school notified police on March 15.
O'Mard also admitted in November that he failed to disclose past criminal convictions when applying for certification with the New York State Department of Education.
O'Mard had a past conviction for grand larceny and another for petty larceny, 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera reported.
State DOE officials contended that O'Mard used someone else's fingerprints to get hired as principal of the school nearly 10 years before his arrest. O'Mard's attorney denied the claim at the time.
The teen in the sex case did not attend the sentencing hearing, Rivera reported.
In court Wednesday, O'Mard expressed remorse. But afterward, he told reporters, "Freeport set me up," Rivera reported.
