Cherry Hill Courier-Post

UPDATE: Court papers detail allegations against teacher Jonathan Liano

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CAMDEN – A South Jersey middle school teacher was arrested on charges that he tried to have sex with a 14-year-old girl following more than a week of "explicit” conversations that he initiated online.

Jonathan Liano, 38, drove to Pennsauken on Friday afternoon in hopes of meeting with the teen, only to learn he actually had been communicating with an undercover detective, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said. He was arrested and held in Camden County Jail.

Liano is a fifth-grade social studies teacher at Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in Berlin Township whose classes focus on ancient civilizations and world culture. The district placed him on administrative leave Saturday.

The prosecutor’s office said its investigation began Sept. 4, the same day the 2018-19 school year began for Berlin Township teachers.

The Winslow man began chatting online that day with someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl and sent sexually explicit messages, the prosecutor’s office said. In reality, authorities said, the person on the other end of the conversation was a detective working with the prosecutor’s High-Tech Crimes Unit.

In those conversations, authorities said, Liano and the “teen” agreed to meet Friday at an undisclosed location in Pennsauken.

But when Liano arrived there around 4:30 p.m., law enforcement officers were waiting and arrested the teacher, the prosecutor’s office said. Detectives also seized digital devices in his possession and plan to analyze them.

Liano was jailed on charges of second-degree luring, sending obscene material to a minor, attempted criminal sexual contact and attempted sexual assault with a minor.

The prosecutor’s office said the investigation is continuing and involves assistance from Pennsauken police, the county sheriff’s department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Liano, who lives in the Sicklerville section of Winslow, has been teaching at various grade levels since 2003, according to the online site he maintains for communicating with his students. His current annual salary is $62,680, and he also earned extra money providing security at Eisenhower School baseball and softball games, according to Board of Education records.

In an email to the Courier-Post on Saturday, Berlin Township Schools Superintendent Edythe Austermuhl said: "The district was just advised of the arrest today and we are placing the teacher on administrative leave until we can speak with our board solicitor and further assess the situation."

The district said counselors will be available for students Monday when they return to school.

"The students and staff demonstrate their strength, kindness, and compassion each and every day," the district said in a statement on its website. "We, the Administrative Team of the Berlin Township School District, are confident that everyone in the Berlin Township School District Family, including parents, guardians, and other community members, will support each other during this difficult time."

Liano previously taught sixth grade language arts and social studies at Lindenwold Middle School; eighth-grade reading at Camden’s Promise Charter School; language arts and social studies for several grades at Eisenhower Middle School; and general education and social studies at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Berlin Township.

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