Middle school teacher pursued 13-year-old girl for sex, police say

PEMBROKE PINES A middle school teacher accused of seeking sex from a 13-year-old sent her obscene text messages, requested photos and suggested they smoke marijuana together, Pembroke Pines police said.

And it all had to be kept a secret — their secret — the 26-year-old teacher and junior varsity football coach at Somerset Academy charter school told the girl, a police report said.

Leverick Johnson, of Miami, was arrested at the academy’s Chapel Trail Campus, 20801 Johnson St., on Tuesday and booked into the Broward Main Jail.

His four felony charges are solicitation, sexual battery act on a minor by a custodian, cruelty toward a child and obscene communication with a child.

The girl told investigators under oath that she never had sex with Johnson.

The teacher grabbed her buttocks a couple of times, she told police, and she exchanged text messages with him for about a month, the report said.

The inappropriate texts lasted from Sept. 13 to Oct. 11, police said.

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Johnson asked the child to meet him last Thursday in a staircase near his classroom to perform a sex act, his arrest report said.

He chose that spot, police said, because Johnson knew the school’s closed-circuit TV system could not reach or record that area.

No sex took place that day either, the child told police. girl’s name was from the police redacted report.

Efforts to reach Somerset Academy after hours on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

When investigators showed up there earlier in the day, Johnson agreed to speak to them without a lawyer present. He also signed a search release for his cellphone, a police spokeswoman said.

“I was able to locate the SMS text messages [to the girl] stored within the defendant’s cellular device,” Detective Michael Silver wrote in a report.

Pembroke Pines police urged parents to be aware of who their children are communicating with on their cellphones and social media.

They also urged parents who believe their child may have had inappropriate contact with Johnson to contact the Pembroke Pines Police Department at 954-431-2200.