Two Montgomery County teachers charged with sexual abuse

Two Montgomery County teachers were arrested on Monday for sex-related offenses, according to police. Cuyler Jay Cornell, a 50 year-old seventh grade teacher at Neelsville Middle School in Germantown, was arrested on Monday on several accounts. After the school learned he was under investigation in late February, he was put on administrative leave. In an unrelated incident, Aaron William Murray La Mere, who worked at Silver Spring’s Northwood High School in the Audio/Visual Department, was also arrested and charged with sex-related offenses.

Allegations against Cornell surfaced in February after police were notified of possible inappropriate conduct between him and a 14-year-old student. The police investigation found that the two became friends in 2010 when the victim was in his class. Cornell visited the student in and outside the student’s home, which reportedly continued after the school year ended. Cornell was later charged with two sex offenses in the third degree and one count of sexual abuse of a minor. During the investigation on La Mere, police confiscated a laptop he had while working at the school and found numerous pornographic images of young men. Police were also told three students at the school were sex abuse victims of La Mere, which occurred between October 1, 2011, and February 29, 2012. La Mere has been charged with two counts of indecent exposure, three counts of possession of child pornography, four counts of sexual solicitation of a minor, four counts of third degree sex offenses, three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, and one count of committing a fourth degree sex offense.