A teacher in Pennsylvania was arrested on Monday for alleged sexual contact with a student.
Olivia Ortz (pictured in her mugshot, above), was a chorus teacher at Wilmington Area High School in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, just across the border from Youngstown, Ohio. Now, police claim that the 26-year-old engaged in illicit sexual contact with a teenage student at the school — and the evidence needed to back the allegation was apparently provided by Ortz’s husband! Whoa!!
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Detectives with the New Wilmington Police Department first got involved with the case back in mid-April, when the school’s principal contacted them about an apparently inappropriate relationship. Police quickly learned that Ortz’s husband, who is a contract employee with the school district, reached out to the principal after returning home from a school-sponsored trip to Florida and discovering “evidence that his wife Olivia was having an inappropriate relationship” with a student, according to a press release shared with the media. The student is apparently a 17-year-old girl at the high school, according to cops.
Now, police have charged Ortz with three felonies: institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and criminal use of communication facility. She has since been released on a $150,000 bond pending a future court date. New Wilmington Police Chief Carmen Piccirillo told People that the husband allegedly found racy messages sent by Ortz to the student on an iPad that the couple used together at home.
The police chief stated that Ortz’s husband immediately did “the right thing,” and contacted school officials:
“They have both worked with this student on stage productions in our school district. And obviously, he was appalled. He knew she was underage and he’s a [mandated] reporter. And so, he does the right thing. And the next day a Saturday, he contacts the school principal.”
Upon being interrogated, the teen initially denied having any sexual contact with the teacher, but later, she copped to having an inappropriate relationship. Per People, the police press release states:
“The student indicated that at first she considered Olivia Ortz a ‘safe adult’ that she trusted and confided in about her personal problems and relationship problems, but then it turned into a romantic relationship.”
Specifically, the student allegedly told cops that she was invited to the chorus teacher’s home on April 7, when Ortz’s husband was out of town.
The student reportedly told police that she and Ortz had “engaged in sexual activity” that evening, and she stayed the night. The teenager also claimed that she returned to Ortz’s home again after that to “comfort” the disgraced now-former teacher after her husband first became aware of the sexual contact. What the…
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By May, police had served search warrants at Ortz’s home, and seized a cell phone and iPad. The release claims that, brazenly, the chorus teacher allegedly tried to keep communicating with the student using Spotify even after police moved in:
“At that time Olivia became aware of the active police investigation and the potential charges against her. Instead of terminating her contact with the involved teen, the two continued to communicate with each other using the Spotify music app.”
The police chief added to that press release revelation with his own statement about how the two of them apparently came up with a “code word” to keep their relationship a secret:
“They were communicating by going into a specified playlist under each of their public profiles and leaving messages for each other. They felt nobody would discover that. They came up with a code word in case something happened, or they got discovered.”
According to Piccirillo, the code word the teacher and student chose to use was “fried rice.”
Oooookay…
Per court docs, police claim more than 100 messages were posted to the Spotify system over a period of days in early May.
Ortz’s next scheduled court hearing to face the felony charges is set for May 25.
[Image via New Wilmington Police Department]