Hunterdon County teacher accused of sexually explicit Internet chat with investigator posing as teen girl

Saturday, February 20, 2010
By TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times

RARITAN TWP. | A Hunterdon Central Regional High School teacher and assistant soccer coach engaged in an Internet sexual chat with an investigator posing as a 13-year-old girl, authorities said.

Michael J. Seiler, 34, of the 400 block of Milford-Mount Pleasant Road, Holland Township, is charged with second-degree attempted sexual assault of a minor and third-degree attempted child endangerment. The charges carry a combined 15-year prison sentence.

Additional charges are possible, Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Chief of Detectives Dan Hurley said.

Seiler was arrested Friday at home after investigators arrived with a search warrant, authorities said.

Investigators seized a school district-owned laptop computer during the search, Burlington County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Joel Bewley.

The charges are filed in Burlington County because that is the jurisdiction of the investigator Seiler allegedly chatted with.

"Seiler, believing he was communicating with an underage girl, instructed her to touch herself in a sexual manner," reads a statement released Friday by authorities. "He further requested that the girl send him nude pictures so he could use them to masturbate."

Assisting the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office were the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office; the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigation Unit, which runs the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force; and police in Holland and Raritan townships.

"Law enforcement will continue to have a strong presence in cyberspace, tracking down and prosecuting individuals who attempt to sexually engage minors," Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi says in a news release.

Hunterdon Central Regional High School officials and school board members did not immediately respond to requests for comment, including questions about Seiler's employment status.