CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Ex-Bangor band director who ‘used trust and admiration to violate’ student gets up to two years in prison

Morning Call - 10/25/2021

A former Bangor Area High School band director who used a student’s trust and admiration to groom and sexually assault her for more than a year was sentenced Monday to 1 to 2 years in prison.

Eric Hahn, 39, of South Whitehall Township, was a revered music teacher when he was arrested in January and charged with institutional sexual assault and corruption of minors. He pleaded guilty at his arraignment in May to the sexual assault charge and has been in Northampton County Jail under $200,000 bail since his arrest.

At his sentencing Monday, Hahn’s mother spoke to Northampton County Judge Abraham P. Kassis about the price her son has already paid with the loss of his marriage, family, home and career and his opportunity, with his parents’ support, to return to a healthy and productive life.

“I know the good man he really,” Lucille Hahn said. “His future actions, not words alone, will be his humble apology.

But in delivering his sentence, Kassis said all of that had to be balanced against the lifelong impact Hahn’s actions will have on his victim, whom he met when she was a seventh-grade musician he promoted to play in the pit orchestra for high school plays.

With credit for time served, the 1 to 2-year sentence means Hahn will serve at least three more months behind bars and must complete three years of probation. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years and may not have unsupervised contact with children until he has completed sex offender treatment.

Music was an escape that was pure and innocent, the victim said in a statement Assistant District Attorney Julieanne Danchak read during the sentencing. So it was a betrayal when a teacher she respected used it to form an inappropriate relationship and sexually abuse her, the victim wrote.

“You used music to violate me, and I can’t ever forgive you. I can’t ever stop hating you for that. All that ever goes through my head was is if you groomed me from the start that since I was 12, you’ve been waiting to make your move,” the victim wrote.

In her statement, the victim said the inappropriate contact began in October 2019 when Hahn began rubbing her back as he helped her practice a piano piece for an audition, telling her after it was over, “This can be our little secret.” The victim said she deluded herself into thinking Hahn knew best.

Hahn’s contact with the victim became increasingly sexual, and by November he was having sex with the girl at school daily, the victim said. He also began to drive her away from her friends and other teachers making her feel guilty if spent time with them and threatening to kill himself.

Hahn resigned from his job in March 2020 but he continued to manipulate the victim, telling her he was done with her but warning her that if she told anyone it would ruin his life and lives of his kids. Later he would tell her he didn’t mean it and ask for revealing pictures. This affected the victim mentally and physically, spending days on end in bed and severely losing weight.

When Hahn was arrested, she felt spurned by her former friends and was tormented by watching her parents struggle with what had happened, the victim said.

“I’ll never be the same after what you did. And whatever sentence you get will not be anything as painful as what I have had to deal with. Will continue to deal with,” she wrote.

Hahn, who cried softly and shook at times during the sentencing, said he admits that what he did was wrong and morally and professionally reprehensible.

“I am sorry for tarnishing the trust that parents place in their children’s teachers,” he said.

Defense attorney Matthew P. Sedacca said that sentencing Hahn to the nine months he had already served in prison was appropriate because Hahn had no prior criminal record, had taken responsibility for his actions and showed remorse.

Danchak said the fact that Hahn used his position as a teacher to groom and assault a student for 15 months called for a sentence at least as long as the abuse continued.

“The commonwealth believes that anything less than our requested sentence depreciates the seriousness of the offense,” Danchak said. “This was not love. This was not a relationship. This was as it is charged, an institutional sexual assault.”

Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.

©2021 The Morning Call. Visit mcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.