A federal jury convicted a former elementary school teacher Wednesday for sexually abusing four former students, according to officials.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Stefan Zappey, 56, of Stuttgart, Germany, was employed by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) between 2001 and 2021 and taught first through third grade at Patch Elementary school, which is located on a U.S. military installation near Stuttgart.
Army criminal investigators were notified in 2020 that one of Zappey’s former students reported that he touched her inappropriately under her clothing between 2009 and 2010.
Investigators interviewed four of Zappey’s former students, who reported that Zappey placed his hand inside their underwear and touched their genitals.
Other students and faculty members of Patch Elementary reported that Zappey frequently hugged students, had them sit on his lap, and touched their backs and stomachs under their clothes.
The victims were between six and eight years old during the sexual abuse, court evidence indicated.
Zappey was convicted of four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and four counts of abusive sexual contact. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 2. He is facing up to 30 years in prison.
The FBI and Army CID Europe Field Office investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Eduardo Palomo of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Leanne Marek of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia are prosecuting the case.