The former Queens middle school teacher who confessed to statutory rape dropped his plans to withdraw his guilty plea and was sentenced to six months in prison, the district attorney’s office said.
Daniel Reilly, 36, a married father, admitted in May to having sex multiple times at his Forest Hills home with a 14-year-old girl he used to teach, according to authorities.
His legal team was considering withdrawing his plea earlier this month, a lawyer said, after learning a conviction would keep Reilly from raising his infant daughter.
But the former sixth grade English teacher at I.S. 237 instead followed through with his planned sentencing on Monday, August 19, the district attorney’s office said.
As part of the plea bargain, meant to spare the victim from testifying, Reilly also agreed to serve 10 years probation, give up his teaching license, register on the state’s sex offender registry and take a sex offender reform program, authorities said.
His lawyer did not immediately comment.
The relationship between Reilly and the teen, which began last August, surfaced when her sister found sexually explicit text messages on her phone, according to the district attorney.
The ex-educator, who made close to $62,000 a year, resigned a month after his arrest from the Flushing school, where he had worked for six years, a Department of Education spokesperson said.
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