HAYWARD — An English teacher here has been arrested for allegedly sending a picture of his penis to an undercover cop posing as a 13-year-old, after reaching out to the purported girl on Snapchat, authorities said.
Joseph Rudolfo Martinez, 37, allegedly snapped the picture while still inside a classroom at Tennyson High School, and invited the officer posing as a teen to his classroom for some “naughty fun,” authorities said in court records.
Since his arrest, Martinez has been “released” from his substitute teaching job, according to a statement by the Hayward Unified School District. Families were notified about the police action, the district said.
On Feb. 26, an undercover officer from San Jose created a fake Snapchat profile of a 13-year-old girl from Clayton, and Martinez — using the screen name “Mr. Teacher Man” — allegedly reached out to her, authorities said.
Police say the fake Clayton girl’s profile was one of two times on Feb. 26 that Martinez allegedly reached out to an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, and that he made sexual advances to both. In the chats, Martinez allegedly made it clear he had an interest in teens, including those in his own classroom.
Martinez, a Union City resident, allegedly told the undercover officer that he was chatting with her during a free period, while still at the high school. When learning the “girl” was in Clayton, he lamented how difficult it would be to bring her to Hayward for a sexual encounter or to play “strip Uno,” authorities said. He also took a picture of his penis while still seated inside the room where he taught English to 9th and 10th graders, according to authorities.
At one point, Martinez allegedly asked for a nude picture of the purported girl, adding that he wanted to make sure she wasn’t an undercover officer trying to “catch a predator,” a reference to a defunct NBC show that conducted online stings of men targeting children for sexual abuse.
Martinez was arrested earlier this month but has since bailed out of jail, and Contra Costa prosecutors are weighing felony charges against him.