MCPS employee accused of secretly recording students faces new charges

More charges have been leveled against a high school employee accused of secretly recording theater students at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda.

James Mulhern III, 43, of Clarksburg, was charged this year with one count of sex abuse of a minor. Since then, three more charges have been added in the case, built on recordings allegedly made in 2018 that were found on a memory card in April.

Court records for a separate case indicate Mulhern faces eight other charges of sex abuse of a minor. This case also involves recordings of students made in 2015 at the Bethesda campus found on a flash drive.

Between the two cases, investigators have identified 12 student victims. Each charge of sex abuse of a minor is a felony. Mulhern faces up to 300 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

He remains on leave without pay, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Public Schools said.

Mulhern was in jail in April, was released on bond, and then was taken into custody again this week. He wore jail scrubs when he appeared through videoconference Wednesday afternoon at a bond hearing in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville.

Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Chapman told Judge Sherri Koch that Mulhern had a “perversive interest in his students” and should be held without bond because prosecutors are concerned about “potential grooming of other students.”

Mulhern’s private defense attorney, David Wooten, said his client’s two cases could be combined through a superseding indictment. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after the hearing Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing and prosecutors are considering rolling the two cases into one.

Wooten also said Mulhern has taken part in a “psychosexual evaluation” and was deemed a “low risk for recidivism.”

He pointed out family members who showed up to court to support Mulhern, including his mother and wife.

“They know the kind of person he is,” Wooten said. “He is not a current, present danger to the community.”

The defense attorney also noted that Mulhern has been wearing an ankle monitor and had not been accused of inappropriately touching students.

A court order had temporarily prohibited Mulhern from seeing his 4-year-old son but he’s allowed supervised contact, Wooten added.

Koch issued Mulhern a $100,000 unsecured bond, which does not have to be paid unless the defendant fails to show up for a court hearing. Koch added stipulations, including no contact with witnesses and no access to electronic devices once Mulhern is released from jail.

A different judge in April issued Mulhern a $10,000 unsecured bond.

The new evidence

The new information in court records that led to the additional charges includes details from an investigation by Montgomery County Police, who obtained search warrants for electronics seized from Mulhern’s home. They found images of female students at the high school, including some from a flash drive that stored hidden-camera videos taken in the school’s theater changing room.

As a media services technician at the school, Mulhern taught students about equipment and lighting. He also provided technical support for plays and musicals at the high school, according to court records.

Investigators found searches for free pornographic videos of students in the search history of an iPhone seized from Mulhern. A Google search history also contained searches for “teen cleavage” and “girls of wj,” court records say.

The flash drive included 39 images, taken at the high school, that focused on the female students’ breasts. Investigators also found 15 hidden-camera videos on a flash drive, 11 of which were recorded within the high school’s theater changing room and costume storage room, according to court records.

Mulhern became a criminal suspect after two students found a video camera in a control booth at the school’s theater in April. School district staff notified police.

“One of the students viewed the contents of the memory card and saw videos recorded inside the girls’ changing room in the theater area,” police said in a news release.

One video showed a man placing a camera and leaving the room while it was recording. Shortly after, “teenage girls entered the room and began changing clothes for a theater performance,” police said.

When questioned by police, Mulhern initially denied wrongdoing but then acknowledged he was the man seen in screenshots setting up a camera in a changing room and then returning to turn it off.

He also told police he had an “attraction to multiple students while working at Walter Johnson High School,” court records said.

Banner reporter Talia Richman contributed to this article.

This article has been updated.