HANCOCK, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York announced that 58-year-old Paul Geer of Hancock was sentenced on Thursday to 27 years and 3 months in federal prison in a sexual assault case involving children. Geer was convicted back in March.
Geer was previously found guilty of subjecting students to acts of cruelty while working as a teacher at the Family Foundation School in Hancock between 1994 and 2001, including denying them food, issuing physical labor, coercing them into eating vomit, and leaving them bound and alone for extended time periods. He was further found to have raped two different children after abusing his authority as a teacher and forcing the students to travel with him privately to Canada.
“Paul Geer was a monster. As a teacher, Geer was supposed to help his students become better versions of themselves. Instead, Geer used his position of power to torture these children physically, emotionally, and psychologically,” Acting United States Attorney John Sarcone stated. “When Geer believed his tactics had been sufficiently effective in breaking these children and scaring them into silence, he proceeded to sexually abuse them. These children deserved to be protected, to be cared for, and to be helped, but Geer viewed these children only as a means to his sadistic and predatory end. Geer is now paying the price for his heinous conduct and will spend the next 27 years where he deserves to be, in a cage.”
Geer was convicted in March of two counts of coercing and enticing children to engage in unlawful sexual activity and two counts of transporting children across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino ordered Geer to serve three years of probation following his release from prison, and he’ll additionally be required to register as a sex offender.
“The depth of Mr. Geer’s sexual, physical, and psychological abuse is so depraved it’s truly hard to comprehend. He was entrusted to care for the students at the Family Foundation school but instead tortured them for years,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Tremaroli said. “Now he’s being held accountable for those actions and heading to federal prison. Nothing was more important than delivering justice to those students. Today, our thoughts are with them – and their peers who never got to tell their stories – as they continue to process the unimaginable impact his abhorrent behavior had on their young lives.”
The FBI’s Albany Division, the Colonie Police Department, and New York State Police conducted the criminal investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Carbone, Adrian LaRochelle, and Michael Gadarian led the case’s prosecution.
Jackson Tollerton
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