The choir director at a high school in Pennsylvania was arrested for a sexual relationship with a female student after her angry husband turned her into the administrators, officials said.
On May 16, 26-year-old Olivia Ortz was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual activity with a 17-year-old student at Wilmington Area High School, New Castle News reported. Her husband, Cody Ortz, did freelance work for the school’s music department and directed the high school’s musical this school year. He got home from a recent trip to Florida when he found incriminating messages on Olivia’s iPad, so he told the principal.
On May 9, Olivia was suspended and a warrant was issued for her arrest on May 13, police said. However, she refused to turn herself in and even sang in a local concert on Sunday before finally turning herself in on Monday.
What makes this story even wilder is the fact that the previous high school’s music director, 37-year-old Jonathan Priano, is currently facing similar charges of sexual misconduct with students. Priano allegedly liked tickling the feet of coeds and forming inappropriately close relationships with them, New Castle News stated. His case is pending.
In Olivia’s case, investigators acted on tips from her husband and found more than 100 messages between the choir director and her female student using Spotify’s chat function. Officials said they apparently had a code word they would use in case their illicit dalliance was ever discovered.
Police interviewed the student and she admitted to going to the teacher’s home when her husband was away and stated they had sex on several occasions, authorities said. The student even went to Olivia’s home after her husband found out about their relationship to offer the teacher comfort.
After obtaining a conclusive search warrant, investigators interviewed the teen and her parents again on May 5. The teen told police that she and Ortz were still talking despite the possible criminal charges for Ortz and she said they are in love.
Ortz was booked into the Lawrence County jail on a $150,000 bond and her next hearing is set for May 25, officials said.
For Priano, he faces 10 counts of sexual assault and two counts of unlawful contact with minors. He has a pretrial hearing set for June, authorities said.
