Baltimore teacher arrested on charges of sexually abusing, trafficking a teen

[The latest: How a Baltimore community’s search for a missing teacher ended with news of his arrest]

A Baltimore middle school teacher previously thought to be missing was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage boy in Pennsylvania.

Rogie Bantigue Legaspi, a teacher at Hamilton Elementary/Middle School, was charged on Friday with trafficking individuals, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and related offenses.

A missing-person poster circulated on social media said Legaspi’s family had been looking for him since Friday, when he was last seen leaving work.

Principal Natasha Pouncey sent a letter to the Hamilton school community on Tuesday afternoon stating that Legaspi has been placed on leave “after we learned that he was arrested over the weekend for a crime involving a minor in Pennsylvania.”

Pouncey said school officials “have not received any information that the incident triggering the arrest involved any current or former City Schools students.” She added that the health and safety of students is the district’s highest priority.

According to charging documents, Legaspi, 56, met the victim on social media when the boy was 12. From about June 2024 until June 2026, Legaspi traveled back and forth between Baltimore and Chester County, Pennsylvania, to visit the victim and first sexually abused him when he was 13, the victim told police. From then on, Legaspi would record their sexual encounters and send them to the victim, according to charging documents.

The unnamed victim knew Legaspi only as “Alex,” according to charging documents. He told police he was sexually abused by Legaspi in the teacher’s car as well as at hotels in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At one point, Legaspi brought another man to a hotel to sexually abuse the boy, the victim told police.

Police identified Legaspi as “Alex” by using his cellphone numbers, photographs, vehicle registration, hotel receipts and hotel video surveillance footage, according to charging documents.

The victim told police that Legaspi traveled about twice a month to Pennsylvania to sexually abuse and record him. He said Legaspi took him to a store to buy a sex toy and sent him sexually explicit images and videos of himself.

“The victim said the Defendant would pay him $50 or $100 to ‘act like he enjoyed it,’” charging documents say.

On Saturday, District Judge Lauren Holt arraigned Legaspi and set his bail at $5 million, which he could not post. He’s being held in Chester County Prison, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 28. He does not have a lawyer listed.

He’s at least the second Baltimore educator accused of sex crimes against minors this year.

‘Nothing could have prepared us for this’

Kate Sam, whose daughter is a student in Legaspi’s seventh grade science classroom, said it had taken her all morning to speak calmly.

“An hour ago, parents were on the phone to each other just sobbing. One of my friends said she had to leave her work to throw up,” Sam said. “I think we are all just horrified for this victim.”

Over the weekend, parents like Sam started to see missing posters of Legaspi shared online. They texted each other, offering to put posters up around the community. But by Monday night, someone found Legaspi’s arrest record, and the news spread “like wildfire,” Sam said.

Sam, who serves as Hamilton’s PTA president but spoke only in her personal capacity as a parent, said everyone was shocked. Legaspi teaches advanced STEM Ingenuity Project courses at Hamilton, she said, and it seemed like “a get” to have him as a teacher.

Her daughter described Legaspi as an “organized, strict teacher,” Sam said.

“It was just complete shock and dismay that this person that is supposed to be such an asset in the school is accused of this,” Sam said. “Nothing could have prepared us for this.”

This story has been corrected to say the charging documents say the victim disclosed two years of sexual abuse and to clarify Legaspi's level of involvement in the Ingenuity Project.

Banner reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this story.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.