DATE: Friday, March 21, 1997                TAG: 9703210663

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:  174 lines

UNSEALED DOCUMENTS LIST SEXUAL ITEMS FOUND IN EX-TEACHER'S HOME

Nearly a year after a Manteo High School teacher was forced to resign over sexual material he downloaded into a school computer, a judge has unsealed documents that list an array of sexual devices, videos and ``slave'' contracts seized from his home.

The documents described graphic e-mail messages and a list of 68 items the chemistry teacher kept at his Roanoke Island home that included handcuffs, leather collars, chains and photos.

An 11-week investigation of Frank C. Schulz Jr. was conducted after he resigned abruptly in April 1996 under allegations of sexual misconduct.

Schulz, 51, has not been charged. Friends and colleagues say he has not been seen in the area since the investigation began.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Trivette in June announced that the evidence would not support a felony prosecution.

``There was a lot of smoke there,'' Trivette said Wednesday. But, he added, investigators could not find the fire. ``All the items they seized, all the photographs they found, and some of the interviews indicated there was a lot of smoke. If there's not a victim out there or if a victim doesn't come forward, then we can't proceed.''

Repeated attempts by The Virginian-Pilot to contact Schulz have been unsuccessful.

Copies of the search warrant and the inventory of seized items were obtained this week by The Virginian-Pilot's Nags Head bureau after Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett agreed to release the documents with names of the juveniles blocked out.

Tillett last April had ordered the documents sealed from the public at the request of the Dare County Sheriff's Office. The Virginian-Pilot, contending the documents were public records, sought access to the warrant and the list of items found in Schulz's school office, car and residence. Under state law, such documents are open to the public unless sealed by a judge.

Tillett denied the request at that time, ruling that juveniles could be damaged by publication of the documents.

But in a consent judgment signed March 12, Tillett wrote that because of the time passed and law enforcment officers' decision not to charge Schulz, ``. . . the defendant's interest in sealing the documents in their entirety is no longer sufficient to overcome the plaintiff's interest in obtaining access to them.''

All juvenile names in the released documents were blacked out under an agreement between the judge and The Virginian-Pilot.

In the request for a warrant last April, in which probable cause for the search had to be established, Sheriff's Office Investigator Leary P. Sink said the alleged offenses were discovered when a technician was repairing a personal computer of Schulz at the high school on March 27. In the process, the technician discovered files containing photographs of ``minors engaged in oral sex with other minor males,'' Sink wrote.

Sink's lengthy comments revealed that:

The technician notified school officials. Superintendent Leon Holleman and school attorney Richard Schwartz confronted the teacher. Schulz denied any knowledge of the explicit material, and agreed to allow Schwartz's paralegal to examine the computer - which revealed more depictions of male sex acts. The superintendent ordered Schulz to produce the laptop computer the school had issued him.

High school Principal Everett Walterhouse accompanied Schulz to the teacher's home in Burnside Forest on Roanoke Island to retrieve the laptop. Schulz took his personal computer hard drive when he left.

The teacher later that day left a resignation letter at the school board office.

When school officials got into the laptop the next day, they found no school material or school-related data in the files. Instead, they saw graphic sexual material - computer generated photographs ``which showed young males engaged in sexual acts with other young males, minors, including fellatio and masturbation.'' They also found files containing e-mail messages to other males from Schulz, who used the name ``Brian Edwards'' on the internet, that were ``of a graphic sexual nature.''

One message was to a high school student in Rockville, Md., to whom Schulz had sent a plane ticket for a planned meeting on Feb. 23, 1996. ``Later e-mail messages consisted of `Brian' contacting the student questioning why the `slave' did not use the ticket and money he had sent him.''

``Other files contained a `contract of servitude' for slavery to `Master Brian' and included a list of names of students from Manteo High School and other persons. This data base was entitled `friends' and consisted of the following names: . . . .'' Eight rows of type were then blacked out. Holleman told police that some blacked-out names in another reference were names of ``minors under 18 years old.''

Schulz had also picked up a boy, driven him to a motel and asked sexual questions. The boy became frightened and ran away. When he later returned to Manteo, the boy found a hand-written letter from Schulz on his windshield.

In a deposition included among the documents, Holleman stated that he was ``personally aware'' that in the 1992-93 school year the boy's parents had complained that ``Dr. Schulz had offered to pay their son to participate in a study allegedly sponsored by Duke Endowment'' and while in his school office Schulz asked their son questions from a computer program about his sexual activities.

Holleman, who was then assistant school superintendent, later found that the endowment foundation had never heard of Schulz.

Another affidavit, from Jennifer J. Sharpe, a paralegal with Richard Schwartz and Associates in Raleigh, said that when she inspected the school laptop issued to Schulz, she found ``a large amount of sexually explicit material.'' Sharpe said the items included ``a document labled `Contract of Servitude,' `SLAVERY,' for a Master named `Sir Brian'; a document entitled `Boy Rape,' '' more than 200 pages of e-mail transmissions dealing with homosexual activities, explicit photographs of young males, ``several of whom appear to be minors,'' and ``a data base containing 32 names and other data in a table named `Friends.wbd.' ''

Law enforcement officials seized dozens of computer disks, computer equipment, video tapes, rolls of film, and the Dare County Board of Education Handbook on Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention for Educators from Schulz's office in the science department at Manteo High School.

At his home, authorities confiscated more than 68 items from Schulz's desk, dresser drawers, closet, shelves and bedroom. Included in the inventory list were address books; a sex-products catalog; a calendar; pads with lists and descriptions of males and their sexual preferences; several bags containing ropes, straps, O-rings, condoms, rubber gloves, metal clips and clothes pins; a video camera; handcuffs; video and computer games; dildos; sex devices; an inflatable male doll; leather collars and chains. Police also seized a photo of a nude male that was hanging on a wall in the bathroom, and a strap attached to the bedpost.

Students had filed at least two complaints against Schulz in Dare County involving ``inappropriate social behavior with students,'' - one relating to the teacher arranging a trip with a male student, and another concerning an ``innuendo'' - but no disciplinary action was taken after the allegations, Holleman said in an interview. In the 1992 incident related in the warrant, the superintendent said, the boy and his parents were unwilling to meet with Schulz in a conference.

Holleman said the case has prompted the Dare County school system to tighten its screening of job applicants.

Starting July 1, the district will require qualified candidates to submit to a background check, which will include a fingerprint and criminal record check on the federal data bank. No one will be hired until the information is returned to the school, Holleman said.

The superintendent also said all references will be double-checked. For instance, he said, if an applicant gives a phone number of his or her former employer, the school district will call directory information to ensure that the phone number is the correct one, rather than a pre-arranged ploy.

``I hope that all of us will take a lesson from this kind of situation,'' Holleman said. ``We will have to be more vigilant.''

Schulz was employed by Dare County schools for seven years, and taught advanced chemistry for six years at Manteo High School. In a 1993 newspaper interview, Schulz claimed he had earned a doctorate from Columbia University and a graduate fellowship at Princeton University and had been a full professor at Arizona State University. He told his students to call him ``Doctor.''

But after he resigned, checks by The Virginian-Pilot showed Schulz possessed only a bachelor's degree from Corpus Christi University in Texas.

Described by colleagues as a very intelligent teacher with a large ego, Schulz was well-liked by many of his peers and students. He frequently boasted that he holds patents on two inventions. He moved to the Outer Banks after resigning at midyear in 1988 from Johnsburg Central School District in North Creek, N.Y., where he taught science for nine years. He previously taught at the Lakeland School District in Peekskill, N.Y.

Schulz's house in North Creek, in upstate New York near Lake George, burned to the ground in 1990. Fire officials had concluded the fire was arson, but were unable to make any arrests.

Police said Schulz has a felony charge on his record in New York, but would not provide further details. Schulz's wife, Frances, reached by phone in Peekskill last April, said she had filed for divorce.

On Dec. 5, 1996, the North Carolina Board of Education permanently revoked Schulz's teacher's license.

Schwartz, the Dare County school attorney, said the state will notify all 49 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories about the revocation. But since every state has different screening requirements when hiring, it may not preclude Schulz from teaching in the future. ``It's possible, but this notification makes it less likely,'' Schwartz said.

Schulz's teaching certificate was revoked under a provision that prohibits illegal, unethical or lacivious conduct by a licensed person, Schwartz said. The teacher did not respond when notified of the hearing. ``He is gone and doesn't get another nickel from Dare County or the state of North Carolina,'' Schwartz said.

Schulz's house in Burnside Forest has been on the market since September, and a foreclosure hearing has been held. Originally listed at $130,000, the price has been dropped to $109,000. ILLUSTRATION: Frank C. Schulz Jr., 51, resigned abruptly in April

1996 under allegations of sexual misconduct. KEYWORDS: HOMOSEXUAL TEACHER COMPUTER SEX CRIME ALLEGED

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