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John Merzbacher, a former teacher at Baltimore City public schools and Catholic Community Middle School, repeatedly sexually abused children in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, a woman reported that John Merzbacher raped and molested her when she was in grades six through eight. Other boys were also forced to sexually abuse her, and Merzbacher brought a gun into school and played Russian Roulette with it in front of students.
Merzbacher was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to four life terms in prison. The State also accused Merzbacher of abusing thirteen other students, but those charges were not pursued after his sentencing. Judge John C. Eldridge described the crimes in detail in a dissenting opinion in civil cases brought by fifteen of Merzbacher’s alleged victims.