Nebraska man enrolled in high school to prey on teen girls

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During the fall semester in 2022, a new student came to Lincoln Northwest High School in Lincoln, Neb., as a junior transfer student. By springtime, he reemerged across town at Lincoln Southeast — a school he had graduated from in 2015.

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The student known by peers as 17-year-old “Zach Hess” was really Zachary Scheich, a 26-year-old man who for more than 50 school days passed himself off as a high-schooler to befriend, exploit and, in some cases, sexually assault more than a dozen girls, some as young as 13. With a slight build and standing 5-foot-4, he fit in with the teenage students, police indicated.

On Wednesday, Scheich was sentenced to 85 to 120 years in prison on charges of sexual assault, child enticement with electronic communication and generating sexually explicit images of children, capping a two-year saga of impersonation and sexual abuse.

Scheich, now 27, did not speak at his sentencing, instead submitting a letter to the judge that was not read in court. He will be eligible for parole in 40 years. His sentence came after he pleaded no contest in July as part of deal to reduce the number of felony counts against him from 15 to five.

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Lancaster District Judge Darla S. Ideus said the long sentence was a result of the number of identified victims, their ages, the impact of Scheich’s crimes and the length of time he perpetuated them.

“The children you exploited were not equipped to protect themselves because they thought you were their peer,” Ideus said during the brief sentencing hearing.

Reading from a victim impact statement, Ideus said one girl wrote of feeling such shame, anxiety and mistrust that she no longer wanted to leave her house.

“I am supposed to feel safe in school, and I no longer feel safe in a place that I used to,” Ideus read from the girl’s letter. “I’m so guarded that anyone who tries to talk to me or get to know me, I shut it down. I never believe what anyone says anymore. My trust is so broken, that even if I want to believe someone, I can’t.”

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Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Amber Schlote said that the harm to Scheich’s victims is immeasurable and that it has led them to miss school as well as suffer failing grades, anxiety, ridicule, shame and a deep mistrust of adults.

“It has undeniably altered their life’s trajectories,” Schlote said.

Because Scheich’s plea deal meant there was no trial, many of the details in the case were not immediately available, although court records state he created false documents and an “elaborate backstory” to gain enrollment in the schools; the court records did not detail what backstory Scheich told administrators.

“This individual provided a birth certificate, a high school transcript, immunization records and a physical from a clinic,” Matt Larson, then associate superintendent for educational services at Lincoln Public Schools, said at a news conference in 2023. “Turns out, all those appear to be fraudulent. But those documents were provided — the same documents we’d require [of] any student to enroll.”

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Investigators said Scheich attended two public high schools in Lincoln between October 2022 and May 2023, spending a total of 54 days enrolled. When he stopped showing up, truancy reports were mailed to a fake address.

Once enrolled, Scheich began contacting girls in his classes via text and social media platforms such as Snapchat where he would flirt, solicit sexual contact, and — in some cases — send them money and persuade them to send him sexually explicit photos of themselves, according to court records.

Scheich went so far as to meet the families of some of the teenage girls before several concerned parents reported him as suspicious, prompting an investigation.

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Police found multiple sexually explicit messages and images on Scheich’s phone after executing a search warrant in July 2023.

According to arrest records, he acknowledged he was not a teenager but denied that he had sexual contact with any of the girls.

Following his sentencing Wednesday, Mindy Burbach, a spokeswoman for the Lincoln Public Schools, thanked police and said the district remains focused on the well-being of the accusers. Burbach said the district conducted “meetings and trainings” with the appropriate staff after the case came to light last year, but she declined to discuss specific changes to the information verification process for enrollment, citing security reasons.

Along with Scheich, a 23-year-old woman faces charges of criminal impersonation related to the case. Angela Navarro has pleaded not guilty and said she was manipulated by Scheich. Her connection to Scheich is unclear. Police said Navarro, who was 22 at the time, posed as Scheich’s mother while using the alias “Danielle Hess” to meet with school counsellors. Navarro remains free on bond and is awaiting trial.

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