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Putnam Valley Music Instructor Charged With Sexual Abuse of Student
Putnam County Sheriff Smith reports that Mr. Stephen L. Andersen, aged 64, of Putnam Valley, has been arrested and charged with alleged sex crimes against a 14-year-old boy. Mr. Andersen, a music instructor who reportedly conducted lessons with students in his home studio for about 30 years, is accused of forcibly touching and sexually abusing the teenager while giving him guitar lessons,
Mr. Andersen was arrested on September 10, 2007 on felony and misdemeanor counts.
It is alleged that the defendant touched the teenager in a sexual manner during music lessons at the studio and that the conduct occurred on four separate occasions in December of 2006. The boy did not report the incidents but, after the fourth episode, he told his parents that he was no longer interested in playing guitar and insisted on quitting the lessons, which he did.
Last week, the youth told his parents that he wanted to buy a guitar to play, When his parents pressed him to explain his back-and-forth expressions of interest in the instrument, the boy finally broke his silence and revealed that it was the alleged abuse he suffered at Mr. Andersen's hands that made him quit the lessons back in December.
The boy's parents notified the Sheriffs Office and Investigators Thomas Velotti and Christopher Spiconardi were assigned to the case. Subsequently, the investigators interviewed Mr. Andersen and then arrested him on one count of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a class D felony, and three counts of Forcible Touching, a class A misdemeanor.
Mr. Andersen was arraigned before Putnam Valley Town Justice Louis DiCarlo and remanded to the Putnam County Correctional Facility in lieu of $10,000 cash bail or bond pending a court appearance on September 14. If convicted on the most serious count, the felony sexual abuse charge, he could face up to seven years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000.
Sheriff Smith noted that the case illustrated some common phenomena in abuse cases. "The victim's initial reluctance in reporting the crime is typical in such cases, because a victim often feels too ashamed to tell anyone about such a personal violation," said the Sheriff. "Also, a child's becoming withdrawn, an unwillingness to be with a certain person or an inexplicable change in behavior - such as this young man's stopping the guitar lessons that he had been enjoying - are sometimes seen in cases as warning signs that something is amiss."
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