Music teacher accused of sex crimes against student

A 27-year-old Valley Stream man was arrested Thursday and charged with having a sexual relationship with a young teenage girl he was teaching to play guitar, police said.

Yoel Gonzalez, of 950 Lynn Dr., was arrested by Nassau County police Special Victims Squad detectives at 10:40 p.m. and charged with third-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. It was not clear where the arrest took place.

Police said Gonzalez met the victim, then 13, in 2009 when she began taking guitar lessons at Bracco Music Center on Rockaway Avenue in Valley Stream.

Though the lessons initially took place at the music center, police said Gonzalez and the girl, whose identity was not released because she is believed to be the victim of a sex crime, eventually "began to socialize" outside of the center -- and said that once Gonzalez ended his employment at the music center he tutored the girl at his home. But police said that after two years Gonzalez, who by then was 24, "initiated a sexual relationship" with the girl -- while she was 15 -- that lasted about two years.

Police said that information about the relationship recently surfaced, leading investigators to arrest Gonzalez.

Gonzalez is scheduled for arraignment Friday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Police said detectives are "attempting to identify" additional potential juvenile victims, asking anyone with information to call the Special Victims Squad at 516-573-4022.

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