Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Connecticut
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
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Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOSEPH RAJKUMAR, 44, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to 60 months of imprisonment, with credit for time already served, and 10 years of supervised release. RAJKUMAR has been detained since January 2014.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in approximately April 2011, RAJKUMAR, who was a science teacher and advisor to the Science Olympiad team at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, befriended a minor female victim who was a student at the school. Before the victim left the school for summer break in June 2011, RAJKUMAR pressured her to create an anonymous email account that did not contain her name, which she eventually did. RAJKUMAR had already created an anonymous email account for his own use, in violation of the school’s policy that teachers and students should communicate via email only through a school-sponsored website. Through the email accounts, RAJKUMAR and the victim frequently engaged in video chats and, during the chats, RAJKUMAR made multiple attempts to get the victim to remove her shirt. The victim initially resisted, but eventually succumbed to RAJKUMAR’s advances and exposed her chest to him through the video chat.
Beginning in approximately November 2011, RAJKUMAR and the victim engaged in a sexual relationship that lasted several months. The investigation revealed evidence of numerous video chats that took place through at least April 2012. In the chats, RAJKUMAR frequently made lascivious comments to the victim and pressured her to expose herself.
The investigation further revealed that RAJKUMAR had also begun to harass other young girls at the school in person and through electronic communications. He told one female student via text message that she looked “hot" in the pants she was wearing at a school event and told another that she should create an anonymous email account so that they could do “naughty things" that were “secret." In total, RAJKUMAR corresponded with at least six victims, including the one victim with whom he eventually had sexual intercourse. RAJKUMAR asked at least one of the other victims to start a physical relationship with him.
On Nov. 18, 2014, RAJKUMAR pleaded guilty to one count of attempted receipt of child pornography.
RAJKUMAR also pleaded guilty in state court to sexual assault in the second degree and, in January 2014, was sentenced to 10 years of incarceration, execution suspended after 18 months, and 10 years of probation.
This matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Farmington Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarala V. Nagala
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
