Baltimore Jewish school teacher sentenced to 23 years in prison for sex crimes – The Forward

(JTA) – A teacher at a Baltimore Jewish school has been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for sex crimes.

William “Zev” Steen, 46, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for Maryland to sexual abuse of a child, a felony. He was sentenced on Monday.

Steen, who teaches students at Bnos Yisroel in Baltimore, an all-girls high school, admitted filming herself abusing the young girl and sharing child pornography on the Internet. Prosecutors say the abuse went on for five years, including two incidents in 2008 when Steen filmed it.

Steen also served as director of Technology Awareness Group in Baltimore, a company that installed filtering software on phones of observant Jews that would give him access to the personal devices of hundreds of community members. The case also included allegations of trafficking child pornography on the Internet, although there are no known connections between these crimes and either organization.

The school fired Steen, and a software company known as TAG Baltimore said he was no longer employed there after his 2022 arrest.

The defense, in its request for a lenient sentence, said Steen admitted to some of his offenses in 2013, consulted with his family’s rabbi and saw a therapist for a year. The memorandum includes more than 10 letters from community members defending Steen, but is heavily redacted and does not include names.

Although community members became aware of the crimes, it does not appear that they were reported to authorities in the years before the man’s arrest. In 2022, police investigators traced child pornography to a computer in Steen’s family home, executed a search warrant at the home and found molestation-related materials on Steen’s laptop and an SD card.

Steen will be imprisoned at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After his release, he will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.

Prosecutors had sought a 28-year prison sentence “to protect society from a defendant whose conduct shows he poses a clear and immediate danger to young girls.”

The prosecutor’s letter to the judge shows that in a video sent to the court, which has not been made public, two rabbis demanded a lenient sentence. Prosecutors also said the counselor treated the person involved in the case between 2013 and 2015 and was “informed in general” about the sexual abuse but did not request further information. The counselor was identified by Za’akah, a support group for Jewish victims of sexual assault, as an employee of CHANA, a Baltimore nonprofit that helps victims of abuse and trauma.

In a statement Monday, CHANA said it offered support to the community after learning of the allegations against Steen.

“Our crisis intervention services are designed to protect victims and survivors of violence, as well as the community at large, which includes strict adherence to mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse,” the statement said, without mentioning whether the group reported the abuse to authorities.

Steen’s family members and other supporters attended his sentencing hearing Monday, with some of them pleading for a lenient sentence.

According to Steen’s LinkedIn profile, he began working at the school in 2017 — after community members learned of his abuse but before his arrest.