An Islip man and award-winning teacher in the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District faces sex crime charges for allegedly engaging in sexually explicit communications with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl, Suffolk County Police said Friday.
Detectives from the department’s Digital Forensic Unit arrested 37-year-old Mark Verity at a family member’s home in Mattituck about 9:35 a.m. The arrest followed an investigation that began after members of Predator Poachers Long Island — a vigilante group that poses as minors online to expose potential child predators — contacted the Riverhead Town Police Department with evidence of alleged unlawful communications involving Verity.
The group had been interacting with Verity online, believing he was attempting to engage in sexually explicit conversations with someone he thought was 13 years old.
Before calling the police, Predator Poachers Long Island confronted Verity on Wednesday outside of Wading River School, where he teaches music and for years has directed the school play.
The group, operated by Mike Villiani and Emily Hoenschied, shared video from that conversation (which they recorded live on their YouTube channel), as well as chat logs and other digital evidence with law enforcement.
Police said Verity, a 2006 Mattituck High School graduate, exchanged inappropriate messages with an adult who was posing as a minor and that he requested indecent photos.
Verity, whose wife is also a teacher in a Shoreham-Wading River school, is charged with first-degree attempted dissemination of indecent material to a minor in the first degree, attempted use of a child less than 17 years of age in a sexual performance – sexually motivated, and attempted use of a child less than 17 years of age in a sexual performance.
“Thank God,” Villiani told Greater Long Island when he was informed of the arrest. “This is why we do what we do.”
As Greater Long Island reported Thursday, the teacher had been suspended from his job on Thursday after district administrators — and many parents — witnessed the Predator Poachers video. He is being held overnight at the Sixth Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned Saturday at First District Court in Central Islip.
At this time, police said there is no evidence that any Shoreham-Wading River student was a victim. The district is cooperating with the ongoing investigation, police and district officials said.
Top photos: (inset) Mark Verity, provided by SCPD, and (main) Members of Predator Poachers Long Island with Mark Verity (source: Predator Poachers Long Island).
