Jan 12, 2009 7:24 pm US/Central
Teacher Charged In Alleged Sex Assault Of Student
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
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Chicago Police Department
A teacher at a private Southwest Side high school is being held on $500,000 bond after being arrested at his North Side home and charged with sexually assaulting a female student.
Bond was set at $500,000 Sunday for Eric Cheung, 24, of the 900 block of North Paulina Street, according to Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin. Cheung was charged with criminal sexual assault, a felony, according to a Shakespeare District police lieutenant.
Prosecutors claim Cheung was working as a chemistry teacher at Maria High School when he sexually assaulted one of his female students. The victim is a 16-year-old girl, the lieutenant said.
The inappropriate behavior began after Cheung gave all his students his e-mail address so they could contact him with homework questions, court records said. His correspondence with the victim began with homework questions and progressed to e-mails and phone calls with inappropriate "romantic" content, prosecutors said.
The assault included five incidents in the closet of a classroom in which Cheung assaulted the girl between Oct. 15 and Dec. 19, court records.
Cheung got the student alone in a classroom closet, held and kissed her, put his hands under her clothes, fondled her and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors claimed.
Cheung allegedly convinced the student to take pictures of herself and send them to him. "Some of these pictures were of the victim naked from the waist up," Conklin said.
On one occasion Cheung allegedly videotaped himself masturbating and sent the video to the student.
Cheung was arrested Friday after other students found the e-mails exchanged between Cheung and the girl, then contacted school administrators who contacted police.
A search warrant was issued for Cheung's home, and a cell phone, laptop and other digital storage media were seized and are being analyzed by forensic examiners. Instant messages between Cheung and the student are also being analyzed, court records said.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic institution said the school was planning on issuing a statement, but none was available as of 4:30 p.m.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30, Conklin said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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