The Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware is considered the pinnacle of education institutions in the First State.
Some of TH’s notable alumni include TV’s Dr. (Mehmet) Oz, Mike Castle (former Delaware governor and US representative), current US Senator Chris Coons, and law professor Orin Kerr.
The former headmaster of the school, Christopher D. Wheeler, was arrested in 2013 after law enforcement discovered over 2,000 images of child pornography on his computer. This occurred during an investigation regarding alleged sexual abuse of his adopted son. (The abuse charges were found to be without merit.)
Yesterday, he was sentenced to fifty years for the crime.
Wheeler’s sentencing and guilty verdict, which his lawyer plans to appeal, culminated an 18-month investigation that shook the elite private school in west Wilmington.
The sentence was handed down Friday morning by Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis, who had pronounced Wheeler guilty in December.
Prosecutor Abigail Layton revealed the plea bargain offer that Wheeler turned down after the verdict. She said Wheeler would faced the statutory two to 25 years in prison on each of the two counts, with only a minimum of four years behind bars.
Wheeler instead opted for a non-jury trial,which Davis held in September. It lasted only one day, with only the lead state police detective testifying, and ended with separate closing arguments in November.
Wheeler’s attorney, Thomas A. Foley, has said he plans to appeal the verdict. Wheeler has been held in prison since his November 2013 arrest.
Davis rejected Foley’s argument that Delaware law, which requires two years behind bars on each county was “obscene, outrageous.”
Said the judge: “This is a very serious crime. This is the abuse of a child.”
Though never charged with sexual abuse, The News Journal notes that court documents show Wheeler had responded to such an accusation from one of his past accusers (from the late 1970s) thusly: “I did do those things. I am one responsible.”
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