Bucks County Choir Director Arrested For Taping Former Students

Written by Alex Lloyd Gross, February 8, 2022


by Alex Lloyd Gross

Joseph Ohrt was the Coir Director for Central Bucks west High School.  he has held that position for several year and recently he came onto the radar of police for all the wrong reasons.

in 2016 while he was mentoring a student in music, Ohrt would do things that made the male student uncomfortable, such as hugging him from behind and telling him how much he loved him. Ohrt would also inappropriately touch the student, police said, in an affidavit.  The student told police later  he felt “conflicted”.

The student called authorities after he graduated.  he admitted that he maintained a close relationship with Ohrt that would involve music.  The two would go to Broadway Shows together and the student moved into Ohrt’s house and slept in a guest room.  While in NYC, Ohrt allegedly slept in the same bed as his former student and  bought wine for them to drink, while that former student was not yet old enough  to drink.

When the two went to Kansas City for a music convention,  they got high on marijuana and drank alcohol.  Later in the evening, the former student said he awoke to Ohrt allegedly putting his hand down his pants.  The former student refused all of Ohrt’s sexual advances, according to police.

 

Police went to Ohrt’s home and tried to interview him but he either was not at home or did not answer the door.

A month later, on Oct. 29, 2021, a young man who was living at Ohrt’s house came to the Central Bucks Regional Police Department with property he said Ohrt gave to him to destroy. Detectives investigating the case collected numerous items from him. That man said he moved into a bedroom in Ohrt’s house in the beginning of 2021.
He said about a month ago, he came home and found a detective’s business card in the door. He asked Ohrt about the business card, and Ohrt said he did not know why it was left there. However, on the evening of Oct. 26, 2021, the man said Ohrt told him he needed him out of the house by the weekend, without any notice or further explanation. The next day, the man began loading his van. As he packed, Ohrt gave him some bags and other items, including a silver Acer laptop computer, to take with him. Ohrt told him that he watched porn on the Acer computer, but he ran the computer under water and asked him to dispose of everything in “a nonpublic manner.”
The man was unaware of any police investigation but was suspicious of what Ohrt asked him to do and wanted nothing to do with destroying the computer or any of the other items Ohrt placed in his van, so he took them to the police station. In addition to the computer, the three bags contained a number of other items, including thong and boxer style underwear, a catholic schoolgirl uniform costume, an external hard drive, miscellaneous pieces of art, and four hidden camera devices. The laptop computer and the external hard were taken to the Federal Bureau of lnvestigation’s Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory for analysis.

The lab confirmed the laptop had been placed in water, but they were able to retrieve information from the computer and the external hard drive. Detectives reviewed the recovered data and noted they contained numerous pornographic images and videos. That review is pending further analysis. Detectives reviewed two memory cards found in the hidden cameras, and one of them contained audio and video of Ohrt’s former student. One video showed the victim naked as he changed his clothing.

Joseph Ohrt, 56, of Buckingham Township, is facing one count of interception, disclosure, or use of wire, electronic or oral communications and four counts of possession, sale, distribution, manufacture, or advertisement of electronic, mechanical, or other devices and telecommunication identification interception devises. All five counts are felonies of the third degree.

His bail was set at 10 percent of $50,00 with conditions he have no contact with anyone in the affidavit and no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 years of age.