A Baltimore County judge denied bail Tuesday to a Baltimore City Public Schools teacher accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl who was found a week after being reported missing.
Baltimore County Police arrested Lewis M. Laury Jr., a U.S. History teacher who taught at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School in Baltimore, after he was charged with second-degree rape and sexual offense in the third degree.
Maryland District Court Judge Marsha Russell declined to release the 24-year-old, who will await trial in the Baltimore County Detention Center. Russell deemed Laury a threat to the public based on the charges and the alleged sexual contact with a minor.
“Although he has no prior record, the circumstances lead me to believe that he is a threat to the public. I’m going to leave the bail at no bail,” Russell said, adding that Laury must have no contact with the child.
According to court records, Laury was accused of attacking his ex-wife’s mother and brother in their Montgomery County home in 2021. A judge issued final protective orders and mandated that Laury issue a letter of apology, pay for damages in the home and attend anger management classes.
In later divorce complaints, his ex-wife accused him of coercing her into marriage and committing adultery. After admitting to claims in the initial divorce complaint, a judge granted the pair an absolute divorce in July 2023.
In November, Laury’s ex-wife said she received messages via social media platforms from his students that said he had talked about her in his classes and recommended that she reconcile with him. A spokesperson with Baltimore City Public Schools did not say if students at Mergenthaler High reported any inappropriate behavior during his tenure.
Laury’s charges carry a 20-year-maximum penalty on the second-degree rape charge and a 10-year maximum penalty on the third-degree sexual offense charge.
Alisa Fornwald, a public defender who represented Laury during the Tuesday bail hearing, spoke on his behalf and said he denied the allegations. She also said he was a student at the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law.
“He is currently in law school studying so that he may be in this position one day. ... I will save his defenses against these allegations for his trial preparation,” Fornwald said.
Detectives with the Crimes Against Children Unit and other law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, found the 12-year-old last Thursday at Laury’s home address at Wychwood Court in Pikesville.
A weeklong search ensued after the child was last seen on June 20 and reported missing the following day. A note was also taped to the 12-year-old’s bedroom wall that said she would take the train to Pennsylvania for a week and stay with a family her mother had never heard of.
John Magee, a prosecutor with the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office, said Laury met the girl on the playground of the apartment complex where the two lived before she went missing.
After her daughter went missing, the child’s mother notified police and said she believed her daughter used a friend’s phone to contact a man.
Police said the girl identified herself to Laury as being 22 years old.
The child’s disappearance flooded social media with calls for her safe return, including from Maryland’s first lady Dawn Flythe Moore and Baltimore native Jada Pinkett Smith, the famed actress, singer and talk show host.
Charging documents show that phone records obtained during the search led to a phone number that was linked to Laury’s home address. Laury was not found inside of the apartment when the 12-year-old was found.
