A New York City music teacher has been arraigned on felony sex crimes involving an 11-year-old male student, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced Tuesday.
The accused is 24-year-old Amos Duque, a Flushing resident employed at private music schools in Queens and Manhattan.
“The charges, if true, are very disturbing. A school – whether it be a student’s primary one or an after-school study program – should always be a safe place for a student, free of sexual predators,” Brown said in a statement. “The consequences of the defendant’s alleged actions for the victim are profound and can well result in emotional trauma from which he may never recover.”
Duque, who teaches classical guitar and piano at the Allegro Vivace Music School in Queens, and at the Manhattan Harbor Conservatory in Manhattan, was arraigned Jan. 4, in Queens Criminal Court on a 12-count complaint. He was charged with five counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child, five counts of possessing a sexual performance of a child, one count of second-degree sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Duque, who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $25,000 bail until his return to court on Jan. 20.
While at the Allegro Vivace Music School, which is located in the basement of a church in the Auburndale section of Queens, allegedly gave his cell phone to the 11-year-old student on Dec. 20, 2008, and persuaded him – allegedly by offering him money – to go into the bathroom and take pictures and make a video of his penis and then later, to allow him to see and touch his penis, according to the complaint. Duque also allegedly referred the boy to pornographic Web sites on the Internet.
The alleged abuse case came to light when the victim revealed what had happened to a close family friend.
Brown said that anyone with additional information or who believes that they may have been victimized is encouraged to contact the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau at 718-186-6505.
