This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A middle school band teacher in Park City is accused of paying a 13-year-old student to participate in a fake scientific study that included detailed questions about the student's sexuality, and ultimately asking the student to engage in sex acts with him.
According to charges filed this week in 3rd District Court, investigators found about 500 emails between Ecker Hill Middle School teacher Derek Spitzer, 53, and the student since October, when Spitzer allegedly asked the student to take part in a "research project" with the "Kinsey Institute of Male Sexuality." Spitzer offered to pay the student, investigators wrote.
"Spitzer used his position of special trust, as the student's teacher, to open lines of communication with the student and to groom him" before inviting him to join the "study," investigators wrote.
Under the guise of a study, Spitzer sent emails to the student asking for measurements of his genitals and details of his sexuality, investigators wrote. "Over time, Spitzer's questions became more sexually explicit and began to make [the student] feel increasingly uncomfortable," the charges state. Spitzer asked questions about the boy's sexual preferences and requested nude photos and a video of the student's genitals.
The student said Spitzer gave a $50 "thank you" card to him, investigators wrote.
The student reported the correspondence to a school counselor when Spitzer began seeking sexual contact with the boy, investigators wrote. Spitzer allegedly wrote that he wanted a "sexual experience" with the boy, to "perform" on him and take him to Las Vegas, where the man "would be conducting sexual research on other nude males," police wrote.
Spitzer was charged with solicitation to commit sodomy on a child and solicitation to commit aggravated sexual abuse of a child, both first-degree felonies; a second-degree-felony count of enticing a minor; and two third-degree-felony counts of enticing a minor.
Twitter: @erinalberty