Report: Principal arrested while naked, watching gay porn

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - When police entered the office of Nitschmann Middle School Principal John Acerra to arrest him for allegedly selling crystal methamphetamine, they found the 50-year-old educator naked and watching gay pornography with sex toys nearby, sources say.

Police also found a glass drug pipe and $200 in marked money on the desk, just minutes after a confidential informant wearing a wire arranged to buy meth from Acerra about 6 p.m. Tuesday, officials said.

Bethlehem schools Superintendent Joseph Lewis said law enforcement officials called him shortly after the arrest, but no one told him Acerra was naked or watching pornography.

"This is all bizarre," Lewis said Wednesday afternoon after a news conference at his office in the Bethlehem Area School District.

Lewis also said later he never heard concerns about Acerra regarding drugs or pornography.

"I've never received a complaint," Lewis said. "I've been superintendent for five years, and I've never gotten an e-mail, phone call or note."

He said police told him that they do not believe Acerra ever sold drugs to children. An internal investigation will be conducted, Lewis said.

Acerra, a 28-year educator and principal since 2000, is in Lehigh County Prison under $200,000 bail. He is charged with possession with intent to deliver, manufacture or create methamphetamine, two counts of delivery of a controlled or counterfeit substance and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

When police received a tip last week that Acerra, of Allentown, Pa., was selling meth, they knew he was the Nitschmann principal and worked fast to set up a sting at the west Bethlehem school.

"We were very concerned and that's why we acted as quickly as we did," said Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin during a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the Bethlehem Police Department. "We felt like we had to take him down as quickly as possible."

Normally, police may stretch out a drug investigation for months in the hope of nabbing a main drug supplier, Martin said.

"Because this was a school principal, we had definite concerns," he said.

Acerra is charged with having meth in his office Tuesday evening, but Martin would not comment on the possibility of any other deals from Acerra's school office.

Outside the school Wednesday morning, parents expressed shock and sadness.

"I'm just shocked about this happening in a school involving an administrator," said Mike Roman, a parent of twin girls in sixth grade. "It's sad."

Doug Brock, father of a sixth-grade girl, Tyler, did not cast blame at the district, saying human beings make mistakes all the time.

"He could have been the janitor," Brock said. "He could have been anybody."

Lewis said when police contacted him about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, he called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet and installed Nitschmann Assistant Principal Jackie Santanasto as acting principal.

Lewis said he met with Nitschmann's faculty Wednesday morning and brought in extra counselors and psychologists to the school of about 950 students. Letters have been mailed to parents of Nitschmann students informing them of the charges against Acerra, and Lewis' staff plans to hold a meeting for parents next week.

"What we are saying to children is in essence sometimes people use bad judgment," the superintendent said. "Sometimes people who we put faith in may let us down at various levels."

Seated next to Lewis at his 2 p.m. news conference, Santanasto said the staff's goal was to make the day as normal as possible, which included holding a scheduled assembly with a guest author.

Assistant Principal Jackie Santanasto, now acting principal, said teachers were told to discuss the charges during homeroom and to direct students and co-workers to counselors if they showed signs of needing help.

"Today went very well," she said. "We have a professional teaching staff."

When school ended, shock, sadness, anger and confusion still lingered outside Nitschmann as students poured out.

"He was a nice man; he would do whatever to help kids," one girl started to say before being shooed off by school officials who refused to give their names.

"Move along," said one woman to the students. "There will be no comments [to the media] today."

While she waited for her 13-year-old granddaughter, Judy Landis planned to make the day's news a teachable moment.

"You see what happened to your principal?" she said, rehearsing the speech she planned to give her granddaughter. "You just can't go taking drugs."

According to the affidavit of probable cause, police received a tip that Acerra was selling and using crystal meth. On Thursday, the Allentown office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration set up surveillance of Acerra.

Later that evening they watched and recorded as Acerra allegedly sold meth to a man in the parking lot of a Kmart in Allentown. Police arrested the man, who then cooperated with the investigation. He told officers that he had been to Acerra's home 10-15 times within the past three months, and had seen meth or paraphernalia used to ingest the drug inside each time, the affidavit states.

Police arranged for the informant to buy $200 worth of meth from Acerra on Saturday. The deal happened, under police surveillance, in the parking lot of a CVS in Allentown.

Police then set up the sting in Acerra'a office. At the office, Acerra told the informant, who was wearing a wire, that he didn't have enough meth to complete the buy and that he would meet the informant later that night, according to Dennis Mihalopoulos, a DEA agent.