Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton founder David Oppenheim charged with 5 counts of statutory rape
NORTHAMPTON - The founder of the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton was released on his own recognizance Thursday from Northampton District Court with the condition that he stay away from children younger than 16 after pleading innocent to five counts of statutory rape in Northampton District Court.
011904_david_oppenheim.jpgDavid Oppenheim
David F. Oppenheim, 37, of 55 Glendale Road, in Easthampton, engaged in multiple sex acts with a girl performing in one of his musicals under the pretense of telling her it was an acting technique, according to police reports. The girl was younger than 15 when the rapes, ending in 2007, were alleged to have occurred.
A police complaint in Oppenheim’s court file states that the teenager and her parents came to the Easthampton police station on May 8 to report the rapes. They told police that the girl met Oppenheim when she auditioned for a musical at the 41 Union St. center, which is known as PACE. The teen said Oppenheim taught her an acting technique called “primitives,” in which the actor describes in a journal her reaction to physical sensations.
In this case, the sensations resulted from the girl being sexually assaulted by Oppenheim, the reports states.
The teenager said she had been reluctant to tell authorities about the incidents until now because she feared how it would affect the theater and Oppenheim’s wife.
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