Former School Teacher Sentenced to 2 1/2 Years in Prison For Sexually Abusing Fourth Grade Student in Classroom

            WASHINGTON – Giovanni Pena, 31, a former teacher from Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a 2 ½-year prison term on charges stemming from the sexual abuse of a fourth-grade student at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School, a D.C. Public School, Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen, Jr. announced.

            Pena pled guilty in June 2015, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to one count of second-degree child sexual abuse and one count of obscenity. He was sentenced by the Honorable Michael Ryan. Following his prison term, Pena will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. He also must register as a sex offender for 10 years. Under the Court’s voluntary sentencing guidelines, Pena could have faced a maximum prison term of five and a half years. The government asked for a 4 ½-year term, and the defense asked that Pena be sentenced to time-served, to be followed by a period of supervised release. Pena has been in custody since his arrest on June 2, 2015.

            According to the government’s evidence, Pena was the victim’s fourth-grade teacher during the 2013 – 2014 school year. Pena sexually abused the child by touching the child’s clothed penis and buttocks. Pena told detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Youth Investigations Division that he was curious whether a child that age could have an erection. Pena also had the child touch Pena’s clothed penis. These incidents took place in the classroom during the school day.

            Additionally, Pena sent nude photos of his erect penis to the child, as well as a photo of Pena’s sperm. Pena used the mobile application Snapchat to transmit these images. Pena also taught the child about masturbation.

            In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Cohen commended the work of the detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Youth Investigations Division. He also commended the efforts of staff from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Child Forensic Interview Specialists Tracy Owusu and Karen Giannakoulias, Victim/Witness  Advocate Elsa Maltese, Criminal Investigator John Marsh, Paralegal Specialists Joyce Arthur and D’Yvonne Key, Legal Intern Allison Denton, and Assistant U.S. Attorney John L. Hill, who prosecuted the case.