Teacher at US Army base in Germany is charged with sexually abusing two girls under the age of nine and is arrested while visiting relatives in Georgia
An educator who taught children at a U.S Army base in Germany is accused of sexually assaulting two female students, both under the age of 9 years old, recently released court records reveal.
On Tuesday, Stefan Eberhard Zappey, an educator of German language courses at Patch Elementary School in Stuggart, Germany, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Georgia.
He was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child committed by a person employed by the Armed Forces outside of the United States.
On Tuesday, Stefan Eberhard Zappey, an educator of German language courses at Patch Elementary School in Stuggart, Germany, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Georgia.
Zappey was a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense, assigned to an elementary school at an Army base near Stuttgart, Germany, prosecutors said.
In March, one student told a teacher that she had been abused in 2007 and 2008, when she was less than 9-years-old, according to a recently unsealed complaint in U.S. District Court in Georgia.
The student said she didn't report the abuse at the time because she didn't know it was wrong, the complaint states.
Her report led to an investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, who interviewed former students and faculty members - some of whom shared stories of inappropriate touching by Zappey.
An additional student also said when she was under the age of 9, Zappey would call her to his desk during class, and put his hand inside her shirts and pants, court records state.
Another faculty member said he had known Zappey for eight years, and that Zappey 'would train students to become 'really touchy feely,' court records showed.
'I have witnessed on several occasions what I deem as inappropriate touching of students by Mr. Zappey,' one faculty member is quoted in court documents as saying.
'Examples of this touching is running his fingers through girls hair, sitting students on his lap, hugging students based on the placement of their faces as they are hugged, picking up students when they run up to him and letting them wrap their legs around him, and just being over touchy feely with students.'
A federal public defender representing Zappey did not respond to a request for comment.
Zappey was arrested last month in Georgia after an FBI special agent discovered he was in the U.S. this summer visiting relatives.
The agent traced Zappey's cell phone to Fayetteville, a city south of Atlanta.
Federal law allows Zappey, who is a U.S. citizen, to be charged in the U.S. if the crimes occurred in a U.S. military installation overseas.
A preliminary court hearing set for July 30 was canceled because Zappey was in quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19.
He's been held at a federal detention center in Lovejoy, Georgia, south of Atlanta.