BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

MORRISTOWN -- Former Morristown Central School superintendent will serve 10 years to life imprisonment for attempting to entice a minor into engaging in unlawful sexual acts.

Bruce A. Wakker, 68, was convicted earlier this week following a three-day trial.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Alfred A. Watson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement, a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Wakker, of Syracuse, was arrested Thursday, June 11, 2020 and charged with attempting to entice or coerce a child.

Wakker served as Morristown Central superintendent from 2000 to 2003, when the school board failed to extend his contract and Beverly Ouderkirk was appointed as interim superintendent, according to the state Education Department.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, the trial evidence established that from November 2019 to June 2020, Wakker exchanged thousands of sexually explicit text messages with people he believed to be a 9-year-old girl and her mother, respectively.

In these text messages, Wakker, among other things, discussed performing different sexual acts with the 9-year-old and sent the 9-year-old pictures of his genitalia, the attorney’s office says.

On several occasions, Wakker directly instructed the girl how to use various sexual objects and aids he purchased and mailed to her and her mother, federal authorities said.

Wakker arranged to meet with the presumed mother and 9-year-old in person. On June 11, 2020, he traveled from Syracuse to New York Mills, New York, for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse with the 9-year-old, documents say.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 28, 2024, before United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby in Syracuse, at which time the defendant faces a minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a maximum term of life, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of at least 5 years and up to life, authorities say.

He will also have to register as a sex offender.

The FBI Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force investigated this case. This task force includes FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and the Colonie Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carling Dunham and Douglas Collyer prosecuted this case.

Officials say the case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

The program is led by the United States Attorney’s offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.

Info: https://www.justice.gov/psc/