How a Silver Spring MCPS Teacher Faked His Own Death to Avoid Civil or Criminal Penalties for Sexual Abuse of a Student

HouseBill 687

Civil Actions – Child Sexual Abuse – Statute of Limitations

Janis Zink Sartucci

On Behalf of the Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

February 28, 2019

SUPPORT

As a member of the Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland, I have been tracking cases involving the sexual abuse of students by Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) staff for over 5 years. As part of this work, I attend court hearings involving these cases and listen to the audio transcripts of sentencing hearing. Many times I have been the only member of the public in the courtroom during sentencing proceedings.

Today I am going to tell you about what one of the victims of sexual abuse by a MCPS teacher said at that perpetrator’s sentencing hearing. I am bringing her words to this committee so that you can understand why it may take a child an indeterminate amount of time to report childhood sexual abuse. There is no set timeline when a child that has been abused is able to come forward and for that reason the statute of limitations in these cases should be eliminated.

Former MCPS music teacher Lawrence Joynes was arrested by Homeland Security in February of 2013 for sending child pornography videos to a man in South Carolina. Initially, MCPS and the press reported that the charges did not involve MCPS students. However, when investigators looked at the pornographic images that Joynes was transmitting, they saw that they were pictures of children in a classroom. When the news broke that Joynes had been arrested on child abuse and pornography charges his mugshot was on the news. A person who was now an adult in her mid 30’s saw the news and recognized Joynes as the MCPS teacher who had sexually abused and raped her 20 years earlier.

At the sentencing hearing of Lawrence Joynes that adult victim spoke to the court.

The adult had been sexually abused and raped by Lawrence Joynes when she was 12, 13 and 14 years old in 1991, 1992 and 1993. The victim described the pain, humiliation and suffering that she had endured after being victimized by Joynes. She had years of trauma, night sweats, and insomnia. In 2005 and now in her mid 20’s, she finally decided to confront Joynes about the abuse, she found he had a website. She attempted to contact Joynes through an e-mail account listed on his website. The day after she sent an e-mail to the website, Joynes’ website announced that Lawrence Joynes had been found dead. He had left a suicide note stating that “today was a good day to die.” The victim blamed herself for his death.

Then in 2009 the victim discovered a teacher named Lawrence Joynes at a MCPS school. She contacted this person and he responded that he was Lawrence Joynes’ nephew and that Joynes had killed himself years earlier. The nephew exchanged e-mails with the victim. In fact, Lawrence Joynes was pretending to be the nephew.

The victim believed that Lawrence Joynes was dead until 2013 when she saw the news story about his arrest on child pornography charges. The victim said her “world collapsed” that day. Not only did she realize that Lawrence Joynes was still alive 20 years after he had abused her, but also that he had gone on to sexually abuse over a dozen more children. She summoned the courage to call the police and for the first time in 20 years, said out loud the crimes against her that Lawrence Joynes had committed. The police made her give detailed accounts of each sexual encounter and made her go back to the locations where Joynes had assaulted and raped her. She had to go back to Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring and other locations where Joynes had taken her. She said the trauma all came back to her.

The victim did not want to go forward with pressing charges. She did not want to retell the abuse over and over. She did not want to see details of the crime against her in the news. But, all she could do was think about the 14 elementary school children that Joynes’ had sexually abused and photographed in the intervening years. She had an overwhelming feeling of guilt that Joynes had been able to convince her he was dead, had faked another identity and had gone on to sexually abuse over a dozen more children. She wanted to end her own life.

She said Joynes ruined her life. She will never be whole. She said she never had the chance to become the person she was meant to be. She said he stole this from her, he stole her childhood, he stole her teenage years. She said he raped the good in her and raped her soul.

MCPS teacher Lawrence Joynes had successfully faked his own death and put off a victim from pursuing legal action against him for over a decade.