Police again investigate teacher charged in student sex case

Teacher John Stalmach, accused with a female teacher of committing sex acts with a 16-year-old Basic High School girl, is once again under scrutiny over allegations of improper conduct involving a different teenage girl.

Clark County School District police have reopened their 2010 investigation of Stalmach's conduct, which earned him a 20-day suspension and a transfer from Basic to another school.

District spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson confirmed Thursday that the earlier investigation is being reopened to evaluate whether criminal charges should be brought. In the 2010 case, Stalmach was accused of texting a Basic High freshman and showing her pornographic images. School district officials say no evidence of a crime was found at that time.

Meanwhile, confusion also has arisen over whether Stalmach had a position of authority over the 16-year-old involved in the current criminal case.

According to an arrest report, the girl told Henderson investigators she drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and had three-way sex with the teachers at their home on Dec. 21 and later had sex with Stalmach alone.

She told police Stalmach recently had coached baseball at Basic. Stalmach confirmed to police that he coached at Basic the prior summer, and in police interviews, a young witness also called him "coach."

But Fulkerson asserted Thursday that Stalmach was "not a coach at any of our schools at any time. We don't know why the (Henderson arrest) report refers to him as 'coach.' "

Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul on Thursday referred questions about the investigation to the Clark County district attorney's office.

Stalmach's coaching status could prove important in his prosecution.

The 31-year-old physical education teacher at Dailey Elementary School and his ex-girlfriend, Brown Junior High English teacher Bambi Dewey, 32, were each charged with solicitation of a minor for sex, a felony.

But Stalmach also was booked on a charge of sexual conduct between a teacher and a student.

State law prohibits a teacher, administrator, coach or volunteer from having sex with a student "enrolled in or attending the school at which the person is employed or volunteering."

But if Stalmach was not a coach at Basic, that felony charge might not stick.

The law still applies, in the opinion of Terri Miller, who lobbied for the law prohibiting teacher/student sex and is board president of advocacy group Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation.

She contends the law applies because the victim told police she first met the two teachers at Brown, where she was in Dewey's seventh-grade class, and where Stalmach was then teaching eighth grade.

"His first contact was as her teacher," Miller said.

Reporter Antonio Planas contributed to this report. Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@review journal.com or 702-383-0279.