Myrtle Beach area high school teacher aide charged with sexual battery of a student
An Horry County high school teacher aide was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with committing sexual acts with a student, jail records show.
Richard Spiegel, 46, was charged with sexual battery with a student, according to jail records. He was booked into J. Reuben Long Detention Center about 7 a.m. and remains there. His bond was set at $2,000.
Spiegel has been a special education teacher assistant at St. James High School in Murrells Inlet since 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The incident allegedly took place sometime between April 1 and June 6, 2018 at a Sunoco gas station in Murrells Inlet, according to Spiegel’s arrest warrant. At the time, the victim was a student at St. James High School. The warrant states that Spiegel did not use coercion or force in the sexual battery.
The Horry County School District contacted the Horry County Police Department on Aug. 5 to report that a woman was involved in a sexual relationship with a teacher when she was a student at the school in 2018, according to a police report from the Horry County Police Department.
Spiegel is charged with “sex / sexual battery with a student 18 years of age or older, no aggravated force or coercion,” according to the public index.
Lisa Bourcier, spokesperson for Horry County Schools, told The Sun News Spiegel was placed on administrative leave following an investigation by the school district and local police.
“Such behavior is highly troubling and violates the public trust and the safety and welfare of our students,” Bourcier wrote in an email. “We commend district officials and local law enforcement who responded quickly in investigating these allegations once it was brought to their attention.”
The South Carolina code of laws states that sexual battery with a student who is age 18 or older is a misdemeanor unless the perpetrator has “direct supervisory authority” over the student, in which case the crime is a felony. The latter is punishable by up to five years in prison.
It was not immediately clear whether Spiegel was charged with a misdemeanor or a felony.
The woman who made the report had contacted the school district stating that she was a former student, but declined to identify herself. Police eventually used the phone number to confirm the identity of the former student.
The Horry County police report lists the incident date as March 1, 2018. Police records did not specify what exactly happened between Spiegel and the student.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 4:33 PM.
