Former Morristown school superintendent convicted of child sex charges

Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
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Oct. 5—MORRISTOWN — A former Morristown Central School District superintendent was convicted Wednesday on charges that he tried to entice a 9-year-old girl into sexual activity.

Bruce Wakker, 68, Syracuse, was convicted following a three-day trial in U.S. District Court, Syracuse, of attempting to entice a minor into engaging in unlawful sexual activities and attempting to transfer obscene materials to a minor.

According to U.S. attorneys, trial evidence established that from November 2019 to June 2020, Wakker exchanged thousands of sexually explicit text messages with people he believed to be a 9-year-old girl and her mother.

In these text messages, Wakker, among other things, discussed performing different sexual acts with the 9-year-old and sent the 9-year-old pictures of his genitalia. Wakker arranged to meet with the presumed mother and 9-year-old in person. On June 11, 2020, he traveled from Syracuse to New York Mills in Oneida County for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse with the 9-year-old.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, Wakker told the mother that he was a "high-profile educator" his entire life and lived along the Canadian border for 27 years, serving as teacher for 12 of those years and an administrator for 15 years. He stated that he "rose to the highest ranks in public education" and that "everyone in the entire County" knew who he was.

The messages he exchanged were actually with an undercover investigator posing as both the mother and daughter. Wakker was arrested shortly after his arrival to meet the pair.

Wakker was dismissed from his three-year position at Morristown in June 2003, prompting him to sue in state Supreme Court, claiming his contract did not end until 2006 and that he was owed his $81,000 annual salary and two years of benefits. He ultimately received a $35,000 settlement in August 2004.

He is due to be sentenced Feb. 28 before U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby in Syracuse, at which time he faces a minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a maximum term of life, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life. He will also have to register as a sex offender.