Former LI teacher accused of rape due in court

A school teacher from Merrick who was charged with rape last summer after a police officer allegedly caught him having sex with a 15-year-old girl in the parking lot of a West Islip elementary school, is due back in Nassau County Criminal Court Tuesday for sentencing on another sexual assault — a felony criminal sex act with a minor under age 15.

Court records show Daniel A. Rothbard, 29, who is scheduled to appear before Judge Joseph C. Calabrese, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree criminal sex act with a victim under age 15 at his arraignment on May 25 — and has been held on $1.1 million cash bail or $700,000 bond.

Investigators with the Nassau County police Special Services Squad said they uncovered an incident that led to the the against Rothbard while looking into the alleged West Islip rape. That case occurred on July 21.

But police said that two weeks before, on July 7, 2009, Rothbard had contact with an underage girl through the MySpace social networking site — and said she and a friend met Rothbard in West Islip and he then drove them to his home. There, police said, Rothbard “had sexual contact with one victim and exposed himself to the second victim.”

Police said the girl Rothbard had sexual contact with was just 13, the other girl was 14.

Police said Rothbard had told the girls he was 17.

At the time of the first arrest Rothbard was a math teacher at the Willow Road Elementary School in Franklin Square and had been employed there for four years. A district spokeswoman told Newsday last September that Rothbard had been banned from school property.

With Joseph Mallia and Matthew Chayes