Former Pelham Middle School Teacher Charged in Federal Court for Enticement of a Minor

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GREGG M. CAVALUZZI, 34, a former Pelham middle school teacher, has been arrested for enticement of a minor.

According to the Complaint filed yesterday in White Plains federal court and statements at CAVALUZZI’s presentment yesterday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge PAUL E. DAVISON:

From approximately May 19 through May 31, 2009, CAVALUZZI had numerous recorded telephone conversations and text message exchanges with a police officer from the Westchester County Police Department who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. During the telephone conversations and text message exchanges, CAVALUZZI and the undercover police officer discussed meeting to engage in sexual activity. CAVALUZZI was arrested in the early morning of May 31, 2009, in Elmsford, New York, as he was driving to the purported minor’s home to pick her up to engage in sexual activity.

Following his presentment in White Plains federal court yesterday CAVALUZZI was ordered detained pending trial. If convicted of the offense for which he was arrested, CAVALUZZI faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment.

Mr. DASSIN praised the efforts and assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westchester County Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorney KATHRYN M. MARTIN is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.