Phoenix high school teacher arrested on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor - Yahoo! Voices

Police

A Phoenix high school teacher was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of attempting to lure children into engaging in sexual activity with him, according to court documents.

Samuel Bauman, a 30-year-old teacher employed by Phoenix Coding Academy High School, was arrested by undercover authorities after they say he used the social media apps Kik and Grindr to find young children with the intent of engaging in sexual activity, according to a probable cause statement.

The Maricopa County court documents stated an anonymous source tipped off law enforcement about Bauman's sexual interest in children, prompting an undercover investigation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigators (HSI) was the lead agency over the investigation and arrest, according to Sgt. Brian Bower, a spokesperson for Phoenix Police Department. According to arrest records, Bauman was a U.S. citizen.

According to court documents, Bauman engaged in a conversation with an undercover officer posing as the father of a young boy who was willing to solicit his son to other adults for sexual intercourse. Bauman expressed his interest in the young boy to the undercover officer, court documents say.

The conversation then moved from Grindr, a dating app, to Kik, a messaging app that allows people to chat with usernames. During the conversation on Kik, nonsexual photos of Bauman and the young boy were exchanged and Bauman stated he was a teacher.

Court documents say Bauman made plans with the undercover officer to drive to an undisclosed location in Scottsdale to meet and have intercourse with the young boy, who he thought to be real.

Officers used facial recognition technology to confirm Bauman's identity prior to the meeting date. Bauman had previously been employed by Mesa Unified School District as an English teacher for gifted students, according to court documents.

Bauman arrived at the undisclosed Scottsdale location with several sex toys just after 5 p.m. on Thursday, according to the documents. The Phoenix teacher was then arrested by the undercover authorities.

Bauman currently faces one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. His bail is set at $200,000 while he awaits a preliminary hearing on April 3.

The court documents did not provide any indication of whether Bauman ever actually engaged in sexual activity with a child.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix teacher arrested on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor