Maryland elementary school teacher indicted on 39 counts of sexual abuse, rape

A former Maryland elementary school music teacher has been indicted on 39 counts of alleged sexual abuse of 14 elementary school girls and a middle school student during his 27-year teaching career .

Lawrence W. Joynes, 55, faces decades in prison if convicted on all the charges, which include sexual abuse of a minor, child abuse, second-degree rape and other sexual conduct offenses, according to the Washington Post.

Joynes has been in custody in Baltimore County for the past year for possession of child pornography and was recently sentenced to time already served for that offense. He has since been transferred to Montgomery County, where he is being held without bond, for prosecution on the abuse allegations.

Thursday’s indictment doubled the number of charges against Joynes since he was first accused of abuses in Montgomery last August.

Joynes worked the last 10 years at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, where police say most of the 14 children he allegedly abused were in kindergarten to second grade.

However, according to court documents, Joynes’s alleged crimes began before his tenure at New Hampshire Estates.

A grand jury in Montgomery County returned second-degree rape and child-abuse indictments in connection with his time teaching at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring in the early 1990s. At least once he allegedly videotaped himself sexually abusing a student who attended the school.

At New Hampshire Estates,  Joynes allegedly posed girls in sexually suggestive ways, having them suck on his finger or a peppermint stick, while he recorded and photographed them.  According to the investigation, a number of the backgrounds in the photos appeared to be of a classroom.

Court documents state that Joynes captioned some of images with fantasies of molestation, and that  Joynes has a tattoo on his shoulder bearing the name of one of the victims.

In late 2011, Joynes — while still teaching — was instructed not to touch children, be left alone with them and to not sit with them in the cafeteria, according to court papers.

The most recent documents indicate that one kindergartner’s alleged abuse happened while Joynes was on restriction.

Alan Drew, an attorney for Joynes, could not be reached Thursday.