A Baltimore middle school teacher previously reported missing was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage boy in Pennsylvania over a three-year period.
Rogie Bantigue Legaspi, a teacher at Hamilton Elementary/Middle School, was charged on Friday with trafficking individuals, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and related offenses.
A missing-person poster circulated on social media said Legaspi’s family had been looking for him since Friday, when he was last seen leaving work. Baltimore City Public Schools spokesperson Sherry Christian did not immediately answer questions about Legaspi’s employment on Tuesday morning.
According to charging documents, Legaspi, 56, met the victim on social media when the boy was 12. Starting in June 2024, Legaspi traveled back and forth between Baltimore and Chester County, Pennsylvania, to visit the victim and first sexually abused him when he was 13, according to the documents. From then on, Legaspi would record their sexual encounters and send them to the boy, the boy told police.
The unnamed victim knew Legaspi only as “Alex,” according to charging documents. He told police he was sexually abused by Legaspi in the teacher’s car as well as at hotels in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At one point, Legaspi brought another man to a hotel to sexually abuse the boy, the victim told police.
Police identified Legaspi as “Alex” by using his cellphone numbers, photographs, vehicle registration, hotel receipts and hotel video surveillance footage, according to charging documents.
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The victim told police that Legaspi traveled about twice a month to Pennsylvania to sexually abuse and record him. He said Legaspi took him to a store to buy a sex toy and sent him sexually explicit images and videos of himself.
“The victim said the Defendant would pay him $50 or $100 to ‘act like he enjoyed it,’” charging documents say.
As recently as Monday, Baltimore community members shared messages about the search for Legaspi on social media. Some posts been updated to say he’d been found.
On Saturday, District Judge Lauren Holt arraigned Legaspi and set his bail at $5 million, which he could not post. He’s being held in Chester County Prison, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 28. He does not have a lawyer listed.
He’s at least the second Baltimore teacher accused of sex crimes against minors this year.
Banner reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this story.
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