Elizabeth Forward High School Teacher's Sex Charges Could Be Dropped

Allegations Stem From Former Student In 2003-04 School Year

POSTED: 2:30 pm EDT October 1, 2008
UPDATED: 9:02 am EDT October 9, 2008

ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- An Elizabeth Forward High School science teacher, suspended amid sex charges stemming from a relationship with a former female student, was in court trying to get the charges dropped on Wednesday.

Brian Brosh, 40, of Irwin, Westmoreland County, is charged with endangering the welfare of children, sexual assault, involuntary sexual deviate intercourse and corruption of minors. The allegations were made by a 21-year-old who was a junior during the 2003-04 school year and recently decided to come forward.

Defense attorney John Bitonti asked District Judge Beth Scagline Mills to drop the sex charges because he said the alleged victim consented to the sexual activity and was legally old enough to do so in Pennsylvania.

Mills ruled that Brosh will stand trial on the charges of corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children, and she allowed the prosecution one week to find some case law that shows special circumstances proving why the sex charges should not be thrown out.

According to the police affidavit, Brosh wrote passes to get the girl out of another class, and they spent time in a back room in his classroom where there was a refrigerator stocked with some of her favorite foods.

The woman testified that she initiated their friendship, saying, "I approached him. I had a lot of problems with my family and I took to his personality."

The first time they were intimate, she told the judge, "It was mutual. We leaned in and kissed."

Then she said the relationship progressed. She testified, "We had oral sex during lunch period."

She told the judge they would spend their lunch break in the back room of Brosh's science lab, and that the relationship carried on throughout her senior year as well.

On cross examination, Brosh's attorney pushed to find out why the woman came forward five years later but the judge wouldn't allow the question

"I'm not going to comment on her testimony," Bitonti said, adding that his client is confused by the charges.

"He's having a rough time with this obviously. He's not working. He's not permitted to work and he's innocent. He's forced to defend himself against these allegations that are obviously five years old," Bitonti said.

Police said the girl told them that Brosh sent her text messages and that she felt pressured to continue the relationship because he was her teacher.

Brosh was suspended with pay on Sept. 8 after the district learned of the investigation, Superintendent Michael Latusek said.

Related Links: