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?
When a judge sets up a bond on you, such as $150,000… you can pay it and walk free or you can go to a Bailbondmans who will pay it if he thinks you will show up at trial. The Bailbondsmans usually requires 10%. He would have had to come up with 15 grand to get out. But his bail was revoked way back when they found all the stuff in his house the second time. He has been in jail since then. Clarksburg jail facility requires the inmates to spend 23 hours a day locked up… only one hour out from behind the bars. Pretty harsh. Here is one of the articles from the Montgomery County Gazette.
A Montgomery County grand jury issued a new indictment Thursday for the middle school teacher charged with sexual abuse of a minor in May and arrested again last month on a second set of similar charges.Joseph Robert Ballmann, 47, of Rockville, was originally indicted by a county grand jury June 14 on a set of charges filed against him in May.
Ballmann was arrested May 2 at his home in the 11100 block of Cedarwood Drive in Rockville and charged with sexually abusing one of his students from Robert Frost in Rockville on numerous occasions from spring 2004 to May 2005.
Police said Ballmann had been the boy’s seventh grade teacher at Frost and allege he had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with the boy at Ballmann’s residence, not on school property. The student is now 15.
Ballmann was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, third-degree sexual offense and sexual solicitation of a minor.
Ballman was arrested again June 7, after police investigated allegations that Ballman had had inappropriate contact with a second boy. He was charged with child abuse and third-degree sexual offense.
Police detectives allege Ballmann engaged in inappropriate sexual contact between 1995 and 1997 with a boy who was in the seventh and eighth grades at Westland Middle School in Bethesda at the time. The alleged victim is now 24 years old.
Police said the student and Ballmann, then a teacher at Westland, had developed a personal relationship as the two spent time together in activities both during and after school. The alleged abuse occurred at the victim’s home, not on school property, police said.
Ballmann was living with a relative in the 81900 block of Falling Star Road in Germantown at the time of his second arrest.
Thursday’s indictment overrides the previous indictment that was issued June 14, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The new indictment adds new charges and consolidates the two sets of charges against Ballmann into one case, according to a press release issued by the State’s Attorney’s Office Friday.
Ballmann is now charged with a total of two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, three counts of sexual abuse in the third-degree, one count of sexual solicitation of a minor, one count of exhibition of pornography to a minor and two counts of manufacture or possession of a destructive device, according to the press release.
A preliminary hearing in Ballmann’s second case, originally scheduled for Friday, did not take place as a result.
Ballmann is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Clarksburg, said Seth Zucker, a spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s Office.
(OUCH!!!!!)
Ballmann has been a bus driver for the Montgomery County school system, served as a substitute teacher, taught English and social studies at Westland and until his arrest, taught English at Robert Frost, according to school system officials.
He is currently on administrative leave from the school system, said Carol Petersen, a secretary at Robert Frost Middle School.
Anyone who has additional information about other alleged incidents involving Ballmann is asked to call Detective Karen Carvajal in the Family Crimes Division at 240-773-5417. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).
wtf? u just posted the story, what was the point of that
To the kids of Mr. Ballmans Class….
I hope you can get over your teachers problems…. it has nothing
to do with you and your not at fault in any way… not to say that you
think that you are.. but you never know how some people think.
If you ever see Mr Ballman again, I would be very surprised..
Yes it is a shame, but the reality of it says that his career is ruined
and he will never be a teacher in Montgomery County again.
Its a shame it upset your school year so bad and you have a crappy
substitute teacher. That substitute teacher may be the best teacher
ever in a few years. The best thing to do is always hope for the best.
Do good in school…. Don’t be afraid to make decisions.. and after you
make your decisions… go after them… make them happen.
Imagine a small child about to cross the road… what do you do??
If you care you will grab that childs hand and help them across the street.
Think of yourself as that child and help yourself the same way with everything you do. We are all just children, everyone needs help…
If we can’t help ourselves first, we can never help anyone else.
Be good, Peace.
There is no point. I wanted to show you that his bond was revoked.
Pat-
I was out of town on vacation last week and just saw your question about when a plea bargain may be made. To answer your question, a plea bargain could occur right up to the moment that the jury renders its verdict at trial. However, that presumes the State’s Attorney (prosecutor) wants to make a deal – in high profile case like this they tend to be rarer. It all depends on the strength of the case. If there is a risk of reasonable doubt, the prosecutor may cut a deal. If not, the prosecutor may take it to the jury.
thx for the advice ktown, great simile, mr ballmann would b proud,…… but seriously thx
I have a question for K-Town. Am wondering if he believes that Mr. Ballmann committed the crimes alleged and if so, should there be a trial (in light of all the media coverage etc.) and what does he think the outcome will be.
i had him 2 years ago for cc he was kind of weird but i didnt really excpect him of being a child molester
Any update on this disgraced teacher?
I have no idea if he committed these crimes. Anything could be false and vise versa. I did not know there was major media coverage. I have seen nothing. Its probably true that he will never teach in MD schools again just because of the fact that he is in jail. Even if he were to be proven not guilty, people would probably not incourage a “bring him back” rally. The reason???
Many people are not stupid and realize almost anything can be bought, and then again there are some really stupid people out there. No matter what the courts decide at the end, many will beleive the opposite. Take the fact that there is an organization of people who do not beleive that the Pentagon was hit by a plane, and one did not crash in PA because they did not find much wreckage proves my point. Did Michael J do it?… Did OJ do it?..
I’m most curious as to why you are asking me? lol… What do you know?
I understand what you are saying. Sometimes peoples’ perceptions are not reality. I had not heard that there are those who do not believe in all of the events of 9/11. That is very interesting and am not actually surprised. The idea of a government or agency conspiracy is intriguing to the public and I imagine many question at least part of what they hear or read in the news.
There has not been as much media coverage recently. I noted your postings over the past few months and was interested in your opinion.
In answer to your question, you may reach me at CGA200440@yahoo.com if you would like and I will explain.
Pat, I read only the first few comments but as old and mature as you may be, you are not intelligent. Your lack of knowledge on the subject is sickening and your criticisms of the child’s spelling is pathetic.
Not as sickening as molesting kids, nor as pathetic as defending a kid touching teacher.
I read the first few messages after this blog and I am in awe of how retarded some of you people are. I had Mr Ballmann around 1999 and I remember everything he did. So much so that I made sure to email him before leaving for college despite not being in contact for 6 years. I did so for every teacher that seemed to care about our futures. Did the man teach? Yes. Is there a good possibility that everything he did that was “fun” was in an effort to gain kids’ trust? Ofcourse. And did he end up touching a boy? YES. The man seemed to make such an impact on my educational career in seeming that he cared that I had the nerve to email him alongside other teachers to thank him. With these charges, he has sh*t on that acknowledgement and trust. A whole argument as to how this man conducted himself in efforts to become “closer” with kids has been handed to us on a silver platter. Innocent until proven guilty? Sure. Likely he’s innocent on all charges?…give me a break, he fooled us all. I’m with you on this one Pat. Excuse any misspelling haha.
Just wanted to say said in November 9th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Pat, I read only the first few comments but as old and mature as you may be, you are not intelligent. Your lack of knowledge on the subject is sickening and your criticisms of the child’s spelling is pathetic.
Well said.
I agree,
Canadians are always welcome to comment, but I fail to see how you are entitled to an opinion on such a local issue here. Don’t you have child molesters in the Great White North you could defend?
Pat,
As we are both (at best) second-hand observers of the situation, I fail to see how my location deprecates the value of my opinion. Sure, you may live in the area where this whole thing took place, but since both of us have no further information than what we have read or heard, I don’t think that it is possible for either of us to conclude anything about the other’s opinion. And no, I am not defending child molesters, I merely intend to comment that I believe that your emotions toward the subject make it difficult to have a reasonable discussion with you. This is the reason why you have received so many pseudo-hostile posts. THIS post is in no way a personal attack on your character, and so I hope that you do not take it as one, and that we can continue this discussion reasonably.
A concerned 17 year old student, Canada.
This is a local case for me. As such, I may have friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc who have kids that go to that school.
My emotions on this matter have little bearing on the topic at hand, which is Joe Ballmann is a kid-toucher who used his position as a teacher to prey on his victims.
The hostility in responses comes from former students who rightfully feel betrayed by Ballmann and do not want to face the truth, and from ninnies who are afraid of making a judgement about someone’s behavior, or think its wrong to do so (which its not).
But it puzzles me why this would be of any interest to you?
Yuck … sorry about the formatting
Pat,
Question: I made a post at 8:46 pm tonight, did you delete it?
ahh, it must have been too long, i’ll resend it in parts.
?Pat,
First of all, I would like to thank you for your consideration of my posts.
And now . . . prepare for a (very) long post . . .
blah blah blah…
I’m a disgusting person who wants to have sex with little boys, and I desperately wish that people would approve and accept me for the disgusting creature I am.
I claim to be 17, but I’m actually older. and I have an agenda to post my disgusting beliefs on anyone’s website that will listen to my trash.
Well then. I guess I should’ve known. lol
I agree:
There, I fixed that last post for you.
For everyone to know, he is a pedophile from Canada with the IP of 99.236.95.17, which can be traced to a home with a shaw cable modem.
Pat,
PLEASE HEAR ME OUT.
I AM 17, and if my parents find out about any of this, I will die.
Please remove your post that contains my IP address. I did not ask to be who I am, and I am not proud of it, but that doesn’t mean that I should be punished for it, especially since I have done NOTHING wrong. What you are doing is no different from racism.
Remove my IP address, and I will never bother you again.
P.S. -I would NEVER touch or hurt a child in ANY way. EVER!!!-