Taipei City police officials yesterday said they were working to track down a Taiwanese-American English teacher after media reported that the man had been convicted of sex-related crimes in the US.
The allegations against the 37-year-old man surnamed Lu (盧), who reportedly holds citizenship in both the US and the Republic of China (ROC), caused a scare among parents whose kids were enrolled at a Taipei private cram school’s care center where Lu had been working until recently.
However, Lu yesterday contacted reporters to proclaim his innocence, saying he was framed in the US and did not commit any sexual crime there.
Care center owner Mei Tzu-chiang (梅自強) yesterday said Lu, who had been employed there for about a year, had been dismissed from his job and had gone into hiding.
“We have tried to contact him over the past several days, but have had no answer, so we do not know where he is now,” Mei said.
Lu did not stand out from other teachers at the cram school, Mei said, adding: “He seemed to be a normal person and did not show any unusual behavior.”
“Lu did his job as told and was cooperative at work,” Mei said. “It was quite a shock to learn that he had criminal convictions for sexual crimes and so he is no longer with us.”
The Chinese-language Apple Daily on Saturday reported that Lu was convicted by Washington State authorities of sexual assault against an underage woman in 2004 and, separately, of possessing child pornography videos on his computer.
Apple Daily published information from the Bellevue Police Department in Washington State purportedly identifying Lu as a wanted sex offender and stating that “the defendant is a danger to children, a danger to the community.”
Lu had fled the US in 2005, after authorities reportedly offered an award for help leading to his arrest, the newspaper said, adding that he had moved to Taiwan and had been working as an English-language teacher for several years.
“I did not commit the crime, but I pleaded guilty,” Lu told reporters yesterday, adding that it was part of a plea bargain agreement in exchange for a lighter sentence, as he would otherwise have gotten a longer term.
Lu said he had been a tennis instructor to a teenager girl, whose family he knew well.
“One year after I stopped teaching her, she accused me of sexual assault,” Lu said.
“I could not get a fair trial, because society at the time was influenced by other cases of teachers accused of having sex with students,” he said.
Lu said his attorney had advised him to plead guilty, submitting to psychological counseling, restricted movement and other conditions for two years.
Lu had taught English in Taiwan for 10 years and was well-liked by parents, he said.
Problems arose when someone made another accusation against him in 2005, Lu said, adding that he was not in the US at the time and did not receive the summons, and US authorities subsequently put him on the wanted list with an offer of reward.
The Taipei Department of Education on Saturday said it had on Wedneday received information that US authorities had issued a warrant for Lu’s arrest and offered a reward of between NT$50,000 and NT$250,000 for his capture.
The department said it had notified the childcare center and demanded it dismiss Lu in accordance with the Supplementary Education Act (補習及進修教育法).
Lu has been put on a “disqualified teachers list,” the department said, adding that childcare centers or cram schools would risk a fine of between NT$50,000 and NT$250,000 if they hired him, and could be forced to shut down or have their license suspended.
Additional reporting by CNA
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
RSS