Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JOHN MUESER was sentenced to 25 years in prison by United States District Judge Vincent Briccetti for his enticement of a seven-year-old minor to engage in sexual activity and his possession of child pornography. The sentencing today followed MUESER’s guilty plea on January 10, 2023.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “To the world, John Mueser presented himself as a dedicated teacher. But in reality, Mueser exploited the trust placed in him as an educator in order to gain access to the victim’s home and to carry out his sickening abuse. As today’s sentencing underscores, we will continue to use every tool available to law enforcement to prosecute and punish those who exploit children.”
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in related court proceedings:
On May 1, 2019, JOHN MUESER, a private school teacher and a private tutor at the time, induced a 7-year-old minor (“Victim-1”), whom he was tutoring, to engage in sexually explicit conduct and used his iPhone to record the activity.
MUESER’s iPhone was found to contain hundreds of images, many of which were sexually explicit, of Victim-1.
In addition to the numerous images of Victim-1 found on MUESER’s phone, MUESER’s phone was also found to contain numerous sexually explicit images and videos of other prepubescent children.
Years before his abuse of Victim-1, MUESER sexually abused two other children. With respect to both of those victims, the abuse continued for years.
In imposing the sentence, Judge Briccetti underscored that the defendant’s criminal conduct was “truly reprehensible,” asking “Is there anything more evil than sexually abusing small children for your own sexual gratification?” Judge Briccetti recognized that the defendant’s “abuse of these children spanned decades.” He said that the sentence he imposed “might amount to a life sentence,” and “that does not trouble me at all.”
In addition to the prison sentence, MUESER, 72, of Tuckahoe, New York, was sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release.
