Ex-Coach Pleads Not Guilty After Sex Sting
By CHRIS AYOTTE
Updated 1:09 PM EST, Fri, Jul 3, 2009
A former Ridgefield lacrosse coach who was arrested in an Internet sex sting in New York pleaded not guilty Thursday. He had been placed on a suicide watch after the arrest.
Gregg Cavaluzzi showed up in Elmsford, N.Y. last month for what he thought was a tryst with an underage girl, police said. It turned out to be a detective he met in a chat room called FamilyLove, the Journal News reports.
The 34-year-old allegedly used the screen name Instructor4 and sent sexually explicit messages and photos to what he thought was a 15-year-old girl, the Journal reports. He didn't want to meet the girl at a hotel but agreed to see her when she gave him an address in Elmsford and said it was her home, police said.
According to the criminal complaint, Cavaluzzi started having contact with undercover officers posing as young girls as far back as January 2008.
Cavaluzzi taught seventh-grade social studies in Pelham and had previously coached Ridgefield High School to a Connecticut state championship.
His lawyer claims he suffers from depression and a cocaine addiction, and ingested $300 worth of crack Saturday night into Sunday morning, the Journal News reports. He is suspended without pay and was set to resign at the end of the school year.
Cavaluzzi entered the plea Thursday in U.S. District Court in White Plains. A judge ordered Cavaluzzi undergo a psychiatric examination to help determine bail conditions.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut
First Published: Jun 2, 2009 12:12 PM EST
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