Grand jury indicts Baltimore teacher on charges of sexually abusing girls

A Baltimore County grand jury on Tuesday indicted a teacher and a law student on charges of sexually abusing an underage girl who was found a week after she was reported missing.

On July 1, Baltimore County detectives arrested 24-year-old Lewis M. Laury Jr., an American history teacher who taught at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School in Baltimore, after police filed charges against him. He now faces 24 counts, including second-degree rape and third-degree sexual abuse.

The 12-year-old girl had been missing for seven days when she was found by police at Laury’s Pikesville home on June 27, charging documents state. Her discovery ended a nationwide search during which social media was flooded with calls for her safe return.

The Baltimore Banner does not name any victims of sexual assault.

The child’s mother last saw her daughter on June 20, before finding a note taped to the girl’s wall saying she was going to Pennsylvania for a week. The note said the minor would be traveling by train to a family the mother had never heard of.

The girl was reportedly talking to a man online through social media apps. John Magee, a prosecutor with the Baltimore County District Attorney’s Office, said Laury met the girl on the playground of an apartment complex where the two lived before she disappeared.

A Baltimore City Public Schools spokesman confirmed this month that Laury worked for the school system for two years as a teacher at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School. A LinkedIn account for the Towson University graduate also lists internships at Baltimore City Hall and the Maryland General Assembly.

In a June 2 letter to parents, Mergenthaler Principal Jermaine Skinner stressed that the school and the city’s school district “take this matter seriously.” He urged community members to contact police or school administrators with further reports of misconduct toward students.

“The City Schools Human Capital Office is aware of the arrest and will take appropriate action,” Skinner wrote in the letter.

The Maryland Public Defender’s Office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Alisa Fornwald, a public defender who represented Laury at a bail hearing this month, said at the time that he denied the allegations. She also said he was a student at the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law.

Laury is awaiting trial at the Baltimore County Detention Center.