A former Chester County charter school teacher was sentenced to state prison for sexually assaulting a teen in a hotel room

A former teacher at a Chester County charter school was sentenced to 3-to-10 years in prison Monday for undressing a former student and forcing himself onto her while she was passed out in a hotel room.

Seth Reich, a onetime theater teacher at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School Center for Performing and Fine Arts in West Chester, was convicted in May of sexual assault, simple assault, furnishing liquor to minors, and related crimes for the assault on the then-19-year-old victim in August 2019.

Prosecutors said Monday that Reich, 42, was a “master manipulator” who used his authority to exploit insecure female students, first becoming a friend, then a mentor, and eventually, sexually assaulting them.

Reich’s lawyer, James Funt, disputed that, saying his client was a changed man who had taken responsibility for what he had done, and was addressing his mental-health issues.

After a five-hour hearing, Chester County Court Judge Analisa Sondergaard landed somewhere in the middle, admonishing Reich for his actions, but crediting the testimony of his doctors and family as mitigating what could have been a longer term behind bars.

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“What happened to [the victim] will not be batted off as a mistake, a bad choice in judgment or stepping outside of his marriage,” Sondergaard said. “This was a crime.”

Jurors acquitted Reich of institutional sexual assault. They rejected prosecutors’ assertions that Reich had groomed another student into a sexual relationship while she was at the school.

Funt had told the jury Reich and the teen were friendly while she was enrolled at Pennsylvania Leadership, but only became intimate after she graduated and turned 18.

The victim of the sexual assault in the hotel room testified during the trial that she met Reich when she worked on a play he was directing in the summer of 2019. She was a close friend of the other teen Reich had become intimate with.

Both teens exchanged frequent texts with Reich, they said, and joked about meeting up at a hotel room after the play ended. The messages included references to buying condoms and filming a pornographic movie, but the two women testified that they had been sent in jest.

When the three went to the hotel, prosecutors said, Reich plied the teens with tequila, to the point where the older teen passed out.

She told police she awakened to find Reich and her friend — who she didn’t know was having a relationship with him — being intimate. When she protested, she said, Reich slapped her and sexually assaulted her.

Afterward, the victim struggled with panic attacks and flashbacks of her assault, she wrote in a statement read in court Monday, and Reich pressured her not to tell anyone what had happened.

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“He believed he was above the everyone and everything, including the law,” the woman said. “He knew the truth would ruin his career and marriage, and so I had to bear the weight of what happened alone, at 19.”

Reich addressed both victims in his own statement Monday, saying he was “deeply sorry” and truly believed at the time that what happened in the hotel room had been consensual.

“The pain and disgust I feel for all of this will haunt me for the rest of my life,” Reich said. “There are no words to express how sorry I am.”

In arguing for leniency for his client Monday, Funt said Reich sought psychiatric help after his arrest and began proper treatment of his bipolar disorder after years of inconsistent therapy and “ineffective” medication.

“The irony of this case is that this arrest saved his life,” Funt said. “He is doing everything we want him to do, societally speaking, to become a better person and reduce the risk of recidivism.”

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His unchecked bipolar disorder contributed to the inappropriate relationships he had with the two students, according to psychologists who testified for the defense Monday. They said Reich was in a manic, hypersexual state when he exchanged texts with the two teens, planning the night in the hotel.

Reich’s arrest in 2021 — five days before his wife gave birth to their son — was a wake-up call for him, according to his wife, mother, brother, uncle, and cousin. All said they were impressed by the progress he has made, and how he has accepted responsibility for his actions and become a doting father.

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But Deputy District Attorney Erin O’Brien said Reich was only truly sorry for being charged with the crimes, not the actions themselves.

“Rarely has anyone come before this court for sentencing with as much support, educational background and resources in life as this defendant,” she said, citing Reich’s two master’s degrees and the sheaf of letters written on his behalf.

“He had all of those things and every opportunity in he world, and he used that to become a teacher and find young women to exploit.”