Teacher faces more sex assault charges
UWCHLAN >> The acting teacher and regional theater performer facing accusations of having an ongoing sexual relationship with a student at the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School while he was on staff at its Center for Performing and Fine Arts faces new charges of sex- ual assault.
On Aug. 5, Uwchaln police filed charges against Seth Jason Reich stemming from allegations of a forced sexual encounter with another former stu
dent at the school during a drunken encounter involving the teenager he was having an illicit affair with after she graduated from the school in West Goshen.
The charges filed by Detective Steven Benson involve Reich having sex with the woman against her protests while she was too intoxicated to resist. Reich had allegedly bought a bottle of tequila to share with the two women, one older and one younger, at a hotel room in Lionville following the run of a play he was directing.
At one point in the encounter, Reich is said to have slapped the older woman and told her she was acting like a “brat” while he was trying to have sex with her, according to the criminal complaint.
Charges of statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, simple assault and furnishing liquor to minors were filed against Reich by Benson last week, but he has yet to be arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Lori Novak Donatelli of Uwchlan on the new charges.
An attempt to reach Reich’s attorney, James Funt of Philadelphia, was unsuccessful on Wednesday.
With the exception of the liquor charge, the accusations brought by Benson all involve Reich’s alleged conduct with the older woman, who was 19 at the time.
Reich, 40, of Caln is awaiting a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Martin Goch on Sept. 27 for the charges involving the long-term sexual relationship that he had with the younger woman who was his student at the charter’s fine arts center in the spring of 2019.
The new accusations arose out of the investigation conducted by West Goshen Detective David Maurer concerning the relationship between Reich and the younger woman.
According to Benson’s arrest affidavit, he was contacted by Maurer on July 5 with information about an encounter involving Reich, the alleged victim in his case, and a friend that he had been told about by the younger woman during his interviews with her. He was able to share information concerning the encounter through a thumb drive that included screenshots of text messages between Reich and the two women.
The younger woman, now 19, had said she had become involved with Reich, who is married, while she was his theater student and drama coach in March 2019, prior to turning 18. She said that in addition to having sex at the school while she was a student there, she and Reich had continued to have sex “hundreds of times” after her graduation until the affair ended in March 2021.
The woman — whose name, as well as that of the older woman, was not disclosed in either of the criminal complaints — said that in August 2019 she was involved in a play production with Reich. A friend of hers, also a former student of Reich at the charter school who had graduated ahead of her, had been helping out the production.
Reich is the co-founder and artistic director at the local independent Phoenix Theatre of Chester Springs located in West Pikeland. A statement on the theater’s website acknowledging the charges against him states that he is no longer associated with the company and that his duties had been taken over by his wife, Jessica Myhr.
The complaint states that when the play had concluded, Reich offered to rent a room at the Clarion Hotel so that the three of them could drink alcohol without going to a restaurant since the younger girl did not have a fake ID card. He bought a bottle of tequila, which the three began to consume. In interviews, the two women said they each had eight or nine shots, and became very drunk.
At some point, the older woman fell asleep on a bed in the hotel room. When she awoke, she saw Reich and the younger woman in an intimate pose on a chair and confronted Reich about what was going on. But according to the younger woman, instead of apologizing, Reich allegedly said, “If we are going to do this, we’re doing it on the bed.”
The complaint states that Reich picked the older woman up and carried her to the bed. At some point, all three undressed, although neither woman was able to remember how because of how intoxicated they were. The younger woman said she remembered lying on her back next to her friend with Reich over them.
When Reich began to have sex with the older woman, she began to protest, according to the younger woman’s statement, saying something about his marriage. “How could you do this?” she asked. Reich, in response, slapped her across the face and said she should behave like her friend. He later had both women perform oral sex on him, according to the complaint.
The older woman, when interviewed by Maurer in June, said she had only fragmented memories of the night. But she did save text messages between the three in which they discussed the encounter, and in which Reich admitted having sex with both and apologized for slapping the older woman.
Both told the investigators they were too intoxicated to consent to the group encounter, and that neither had any intention that such an event would occur that night.
A check of the hotel registry at the Clarion Hotel on Route 100 in Uwchlan shows that Reich paid $71.91 for a room there on Aug. 29, 2019.
According to the criminal complaint and arrest affidavit filed in July by Maurer, the younger woman said that she became involved with Reich when she was 17, after having attended the charter school’s performing arts school since she was 13 years old.
She said that she had exchanged telephone numbers with Reich at some point in March 2019, and the two began sending texts to one another while she was a student in one of his acting
classes.
One day in May 2019, however, he sent a message to her asking that she wear a skirt to school, which she did. She met him in his office, where they began kissing.
He then asked her to perform oral sex on him, which she did, and then had intercourse.
She said that afterward, he continued to pull her out of class and that the two had sex about five times between May 2019 and June 2019, when she stopped being his student, mostly in his office. Their relationship continued until about March.
Maurer did a search of the woman’s cellphone and said in his affidavit that he found thousands of text messages and explicit images and videos exchanged between the two.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.