TEACHER’S ‘TAX $$’ TRYSTS
Gave gifts, cash & job to student for sex: probers
A Queens high-school teacher became a student’s “sugar daddy” — showering her with gifts, cash and a no-show job in exchange for sex, investigators found.
And, just as shockingly, taxpayers footed the $2,000 cost of Martin Howfield’s sick scheme.
Howfield, 56, who taught Spanish at North Queens Community HS, is also a licensed attorney. He gave the 17-year-old girl a paid internship funded by the city Department of Education through a “Learning to Work” program.
But her only duties consisted of performing sexual favors.
The predatory plot came up in a private conversation last year between Howfield and a student at the Flushing “transfer school,” where failing kids get a last chance to graduate, the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation says.
After explaining the crass term, Howfield “asked whether he could be her sugar daddy,” a report says. He agreed to pay her $300 a month, and “asked what she would do for the money.”
The student offered to have sex with Howfield, she told investigators.
The teacher then asked her to send him “nude photos of her vagina, breasts and buttocks,” which she did, the report says.
The student told investiga- tors she met with Howfield outside school several times, at a McDonald’s in Jamaica, Queens. They walked to a mall, where Howfield bought her $150 Jordan sneakers at a Kids Foot Locker. On another trip, he bought her $190 Jordan sneakers. A third time, he paid $27 for five pairs of panties from Victoria’s Secret.
At first, the girl told police and SCI investigators that Howfield only fondled her beneath her clothing. But she later admitted to the SCI that she had intercourse and oral sex with the teacher in his car after shopping. He then gave her $20 and put her in a cab.
The student’s mother told a detective that her daughter texted she went to the mall with her “sugar daddy, Marty,” who gave her money. The girl also told her mom that “Marty” was her teacher, and that she took part in a work-study program at his law firm.
But she told investigators “she never worked there.”
She said Howfield instructed her to fill out time sheets, which he signed, stating she worked at “The Law Office of Martin Howfield.” The address on file with the courts is a Long Island home.
Howfield also asked the student to set him up with another girl. A former student, 17, told investigators she asked Howfield for legal help. He had her engage in phone sex with him, and sent her a photo of his penis, the report says.
The student said Howfield “was supposed to give her money for the phone sex, but never did.”
During the phone sex, she added, Howfield claimed to be watching child porn, and told her he “wanted to ejaculate on her baby’s face.”
The SCI said it found no porn in a search of Howfield’s DOE computer.
Howfield declined to speak with SCI investigators. He did not return messages from The Post.
The DOE said Howfield quit his $85,793-a-year job in November 2016, shortly after the SCI completed its probe.
The state Education Department and state court system had no comment on Howfield, but said they investigate allegations of immoral or unethical conduct to decide whether to revoke licenses.