Joe Ballmann- Teacher and Kid Toucher
Another local teacher was busted trying to get his man-boy love on. Sick bastard was supposed to be teaching English, but from everything I’ve read, he was doing everything except for teaching. He had foosball tournaments in his classroom.
Ballmann let kids play a playstation in his classroom. He built obstacle courses out of filing cabinets. As far as reading went, it was comic books and Simpsons cartoons. And of course, there was the project where students made funny videos and watched Saturday Night Live skits.
He also got nominated for teacher of the year- somehow. Maybe it was for giving great massages to his boy students, ’cause it certainly wasn’t for teaching. Yet one more reason to homeschool, folks.
From Gazette.net here:
An English teacher at a Rockville middle school who had chloroform and torn pictures of children in his home has been arrested for sexually abusing a student on numerous occasions.
Joseph Robert Ballmann, 47, of the 11100 block of Cedarwood Drive, is being held on $150,000 bond on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, third-degree sexual offense and sexual solicitation of a minor.
A now 15-year-old boy told police that Ballmann engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with him beginning when the boy was a seventh-grader at Robert Frost Middle School and continuing into the next school year. (That’s 12 years old, folks!)
The incidents occurred at Ballmann’s home between spring 2004 and May 2005.
Ballmann has been employed by Montgomery County Public Schools for about 18 years. He was placed on administrative leave from Robert Frost on Wednesday.
A search of Ballmann’s home turned up a pipe that appeared to be a bomb, explosives, handcuffs, chloroform, mace, pepper spray, torn pictures of children in the garbage and a handgun.
From NBC4 here:
The victim told police that he would visit Ballman’s house because the two had developed a close relationship. The teen said that on several occasions Ballmann showed him pornographic video, on five occasions he was given massages and on two occasions he was naked and Ballmann touched him inappropriately.
When I was a kid, my english teachers made me conjugate verbs and taught me sentence structure. And what is the deal with the chloroform and the torn up pictures of kids?
Disturbed,
The political point is not one of who favors child molesters- its about how liberals refuse to make common sense judgements because they feel it is a “sin” to make such a discriminating distinction.
By and large, liberals do not believe in any religion, but they strictly refuse to cast any judgement on anyone- by doing this, they eliminate all moral distinctions, which is a goal of liberals. The only people liberals despise are those that make any kind of judgement about morality, because by doing so, it is a type of discrimination.
Man has a brain that is capable of distinguishing between what is good and what is bad. Liberals choose to ignore what their brain tells them when it comes to making such distinctions.
For the record- teachers who fondle their students’ genitalia is BAD. That anyone would accuse me of being bad for pointing this out is ridiculous.
Regarding your point about the possible lack of physical evidence, you are right about that. I guess prosecutors are going to rely on testimony and whatever was turned up during the search of Ballmann’s home as evidence. I think you might be able to get a copy of the indictment by asking, I dunno. And I thought the judge talked about revoking Ballmann’s bond, but I didn’t know he actually did it. The judge must think that Ballmann is a significant risk to the community to have done that, and I’m sure he has read the indictment.
I believe the indictment is a matter of public record and I imagine a trip to the clerk’s office in Rockville, MD where the court is located would likely yield a copy. I’m just not inclined to get in my car and drive over an hour to do it given my job and other responsibilities. Still, I am curious to see exactly what the prosecutors have on him.
Anyhow, I agree that molesting kids is indeed BAD and should be punished. This is more an issue of determining guilt which given the severity of the charges should be done carefully.
At the risk of getting into an acrimonious debate, I think you paint liberals with a rather broad brush. There are plenty I know who are good and moral people, but who may consider themselves liberal for any number of reasons – being anti-war, pro union, in favor of the government providing universal healthcare, or whatever. As a moderate, I find pros and cons to both liberalism and conservatism. My problem with liberals is that they think there is a government program for everything, taxing us to death along the way, and often try and use policy to engage in social engineering – e.g. forcing kindergartners to read something like Heather Has Two Momies – teaching tolerance is one thing, but that book goes way beyond that – intruding into areas that are up to a family to decide on what and when to teach. On the other hand, I find conservatives to be too much to the other extreme. They want to gut effective goverment for the sake of free market – think the botched federal response to Katrina or the collapse of that bridge last week – there are things government must do and be properly funded to do – and on the social front they often times use morality as a means of intruding into people’s private lives and as a means of making them live the way they want to them to live. Take homosexuality – yes it is a sin according to the bible, but does that make gay people monsters or people who should be punitively targeted? Personally, I don’t give a crap what two consenting adults do in private and believe it is nobody’s business anyway. If they want to marry, let them – gay people deserve to be as miserable as the rest of us straight married folks (that’s a joke). But in all seriousness, there are practical tax benefits and property implications that surround marriage. As a moral person, I do have a problem with taking legal actions against people simply based on their sexual orientation. When someone is not allowed to visit their dying life partner on their deathbed because they are not legally considered family (this often times happens when the rest of the patient’s family disapproves), this strikes me as rather cruel and un-Christian. Regardless of what one thinks about gay marriage, going out of one’s way to punish gay folks strikes me as morally wrong. Yet many conservatives do so with unbridled glee.
Basic amoral acts like child molestation, murder, or stealing are obviously wrong. Child molestation is a particularly horrible act because the crime hurts innocent children who are incapable of making up their own minds and can be seriously screwed up as a result. It forever robs kids of their childhood and often leads to the acts getting repeated on other children when they grow up.
I am sure you will disagree with much of what I say, but I do believe there is a basic common morality out there which states we ought to try and be decent to one another – whether bible based or otherwise. I say that as a Christian. I think morality and politics have become too twisted together. A little more common sense would be nice in this country in determining what is “moral” and what is just politics.
Oh Really? What conservatives go out of their way to punish gays? Are there republicans standing at the doorways of hospitals checking ID’s to ensure that only family members are admitted? Of course not.
If you have problems with hospitals and visitation policies, take that up with the hospitals. Don’t blame those that believe in morals, who have done nothing to oppose hospital visits by gays. Puhleeeze.
Gay marriage is a separate issue, which, if left to the voting public as it should be, would be overwhelmingly rejected by society as a whole.
Actually, such “policies” are backed up by the law. Republicans don’t have to stand at the door because the law does it for them. When people challenge such hospital policies in court as discriminatory, most courts will say that a family can only be defined by marriage or blood relation. And why is that? Because the law defines what is and is not a family. So “taking it up with the hospital” is a cop out. A hospital cannot bar black people from visiting or using their facilities because the law bars it – though there was a time in this country where there were separate hospitals for blacks and whites. I bet the same argument back then was to “take it up with the hospital” – that did not work too well.
As for leaving it to the voting public as you say – I agree – but that means also allowing states that permit it to do as they please too. A lot of conservatives do not want gay marriage recognized at all, regardless of whether the voters in a given state want it.
Don’t sit there and act like Republicans invented laws to discriminate against gays. Wrong. This has always been the law, and blood is blood. You can’t define who is family based on whether or not someone prefers anal and oral sex. Its preposterous.
If you had it your way, gay men would be allowed to go anywhere they please, including into the most private of hospital rooms unchallenged, whereas women in a non-married relationship are barred from entering.
You call yourself a moderate, but I think you are holding onto the thinnest of excuses and canards to take an extremely liberal position on the gay agenda. The cry-me-a-river excuse of gay men lying on their deathbed while their lovers languish in the waiting room is stupid, and frankly quite old. And it doesn’t happen, except in the minds of agenda-driven liberals who need an excuse to tear down the definition of families so that people who engage in sodomy don’t have to have their feelings hurt by a mean society who thinks what they do is kinda gross.
Anyone old enough to enter into a contract can grant power-of-attorney to whomever they please. Such agreements mean that they call the shots in hospital rooms. As a lawyer, you should know that, so stop citing such foolishness.
But let’s try to stay on topic.
To see what I mean about Liberals and how they think, especially regarding their refusal to use judgement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c
I don’t know how you extrapolated a distinction between gay men and lesbians from what I said, but ok. I live in Virginia where the contracts you mentioned are void as a matter of law under the new amendment to the Virginia State Constitution including POAs granted to same sex partners. The hospital argument has been a very big issue down here regarding the amendment – perhaps the courts will sort out the meaning of the amendment,but they have not yet.
Anyhow, I agree we are digressing. We’ll have to agree to disagree on the culture issues and whether I am a liberal – though I vote for Republicans as well as Democrats. This is about Joe Ballmann.
In that regard, I will see if I can locate the indictment and post it. It may be on a legal research site of some kind. If I find it, I will post a link since I doubt it will fit in the allotted space here. At the very least it might add to this discussion a bit.
A .pdf of the indictment would be awesome, but it might be under seal since it involves minors, right?
Do you have a link to caselaw or other rulings that show that anyone can void a POA in Virginia simply by saying they are gay? I don’t think so. You may be arguing legal theory, not established precedence.
Maybe. Although I am admitted in Maryland too, I did mostly civil litigation there, not criminal before I became a corporate lawyer. They may seal it, but courts are usually loath to do that in the interest of keeping proceedings open. Usually such an indictment would style it as “John Doe 1” or something like that in the case of a minor. I believe one of the accusers, the most recent one, is 24 so his name might be on it.
As for Virginia case law interpreting the amendment, I doubt any rulings have been handed down yet. The law only passed last November and probably did not take immediate effect. It will at least take 6 months before a federal court hears a challenge and that preseumes someone has yet brought one. Advocacy groups may be waiting to challenge it until another state in a more liberal circuit than the 4th Circuit, which is the most conservative in the U.S. That way when the 4th Circuit invariably rules against the challenge, they can try in another Circuit like the 9th to get a more favorable ruling and get a division between the Circuits. At that point, the Supreme Court may intervene. The Supremes could do so now, but they like to usually do so once there is such a legal division. Long story short, it will take a while.
I see I made a typo – I meant to say advocacy groups may be waiting for another state in a more liberal circuit passes an amendment before issuing a challenge.
im gona be scared this year in 8th grade wen i go to english class…
I think you have a better chance of being hit by a meteor than ever seeing him again. Even if he beats the rap, which I doubt he will given the evidence piling up against him, I doubt he will teach again.
You can go to Maryland Case Search here and find out the latest with his case. At this time, his three criminal counts have been consolidated into a single case file and is going in front of a jury trial in January, 2008.
http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/inquiry/inquiry-index.jsp
Once you agree to the search rules, you can enter his last name and first two characters of the first name and get the update.
Court Scheduling Information
(Schedule is subject to change)
Event Date: 01/28/2008 Event Time: Judge: BOYNTON, DAVID A
Location: 50 Maryland Avenue 8th Floor Courtroom: 8
Description: TRIAL – JURY
Charge and Disposition Information
(Each Charge is listed separately)
Count No: 1 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-602
Charge Description: SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINOR CHILD
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 2 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-307
Charge Description: SEXUAL OFFENSE/THIRD DEGREE
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 3 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-324
Charge Description: SEXUAL SOLICITATION OF A MINOR
Citation Number: Plea:
The destruction of rational thinking. It makes disfunctional sense to me.
Not because I believe in it, but its the only answer that makes sense.
If you want to know nothing, ask people. If you want to see nothing, watch
people. If you want to be nothing, be like other people. What is it that makes a person want to be? You didn’t even pick your own name so what you want never mattered from the beginning… you, my friends are in a dream world created by others. The followers are not many, but everybody.
Don’t think your opinions make sense, they certainly do not when you understand all your comments are about nothing but you and the dream of the planet created by others. Ballman is the same. His dream is his, yours is yours. Do you understand how you cannot understand? What happens will happen. Its not in your hands and never will be. It is a waste of our time to discuss his dream further. My dream is simple.. be happy
and live in the moment. Each of us will die in our own time so …I will try to do the right thing in all possible situations, if I can figure out what that is.
Its an agreement I make to myself.
9 COUNTS, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Case Information
Court System: Circuit Court for Montgomery County – Criminal System
Case Number: 108102C Sub Type: INDICTMENT
Tracking Number: 07-1001-23895-4 DistrictCourt Number: 3D00195380
Date Filed: 07/06/2007
Case Status: OPEN
Defendant Information
(Each Alias, Address, and Attorney for the Defendant is displayed)
Name: BALLMAN, JOSEPH R
Gender: Male DOB: 03/15/1960
Address: 11104 CEDARWOOD DR
ROCKVILLE MD 20852
Attorney(s) for the Defendant
Name: MERCER, STEPHEN B
Address: 11 NORTH WASHINGTON ST 520
ROCKVILLE MD 20850
Phone: 301-637-5775
Court Scheduling Information
(Schedule is subject to change)
Event Date: 09/21/2007 Event Time: Judge: BERNARD, MARIELSA A
Location: 50 Maryland Avenue 7th Floor Courtroom: 12
Description: STATUS HEARING
Event Date: 11/20/2007 Event Time: Judge: BERNARD, MARIELSA A
Location: 50 Maryland Avenue 7th Floor Courtroom: 12
Description: TRIAL – JURY
Charge and Disposition Information
(Each Charge is listed separately)
Count No: 1 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-602
Charge Description: SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINOR
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 2 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-307
Charge Description: SEXUAL OFFENSE/THIRD DEGREE
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 3 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-307
Charge Description: SEXUAL OFFENSE/THIRD DEGREE
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 4 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-324
Charge Description: SEXUAL SOLICITATION OF A MINOR
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 5 ArticleSectionSubsection: 11-103
Charge Description: EXHIBITION OF OBSCENE MOVIES TO MINOR
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 6 ArticleSectionSubsection: 4-501-a2
Charge Description: MANUF/POSS OF DESTRUCTIVE EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 7 ArticleSectionSubsection: 4-503-a1
Charge Description: MANUF/POSS OF DESTRUCTIVE EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 8 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-602
Charge Description: SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINOR
Citation Number: Plea:
Count No: 9 ArticleSectionSubsection: 3-307
Charge Description: SEXUAL OFFENSE/THIRD DEGREE
Citation Number: Plea:
KTown kids-
It looks like the prosecutor finally got around to filing the rest of the charges against him. The explosive devices and porno exhibitions are whats new. Thanks for the update.
They tend to throw everything in there. GIves them some flexibility if there is a plea bargain though I have a sense this one will go to trial.
The docket is interesting. Looks like there will not be more detail available:
ORDER OF COURT (DEBELIUS, J.) GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR GRAND JURY TESTIMONY; IT IS FURTHER ORDERED THAT THE TESTIMONY TAKEN BEFORE THE GRAND JURY BE TRANSCRIBED, AND SAID TRANSCRIPT BE HELD UNDER SEAL BY THE STATE’S ATTORNEY UNTIL AFTER THE GRAND JURY WITNESS HAS TESTIFIED AT ANY SUPPRESSION HEARING OR TRIAL, ENTERED.
Also, looking over the docket, he has been granted bail on 150K bond with restrictions on the 17th of August. Assuming he made bond, he is probably out of jail.
Disturbed,
Yeah, but when I saw the docket earlier, the extra charges werent on there, but I could see that he had already requested a jury trial. Can a prosecutor bring more charges at that point?
And 150k bond shouldn’t be too hard to come by- I expect he has been home for quite some time now.
I think they were consolidating other prior indictments in other actions so I do not believe this is anything new. I saw other old dockets listed and closed for him so it may be that it is all being consolidating for the sake of judicial efficiency. Also better to get it all in front of one jury Avoids double jeopardy issues on related charges..
Its a lot of charges against him. At what point would a plea bargain be on the table do you think? Or has that time already come and gone?
when we were reading a midsummer nights dream, mr ballmann actually warned everyone about ppl trying to “take advantage of us” (during the part wehre demetrius threatens the girl or whatever) and he was always so nice and stuff….i guess i never am gona get that essay i wrote back which is a shame… i thought i did so well on that one, andyway thiss year in 8th grade apparently there were some things he didnt teach us that we needed to know cause he got arrested in the middle of our lesson and our soory ass long term sub sucked ass she didnt kno a god dammed thing
other kids that went to frost this year, i think that the talent show teacher bandneeds a new bass player
Student,
Ask your principal to get your essay back for you. He should be able to. Im sorry about your sub being so crappy. You should be able to catch up pretty quick tho, just read read read. And practice writing, it always helps.
i dont think i care that much, but thx 4 the advice….. by the way, about the cut up pictures of children, we were not working on any project. I noticed something else during school he never used the men bathrooms in school, he always used the doys bathroom…creepy
i meant boys