A 73-year-old substitute special education teacher was arrested for allegedly molesting a child at Newport Heights Elementary School. Police are now asking people in Bellevue to help with their probe.
The office of the King County prosecuting attorney charged Robert Scroggs with molesting a child in the first degree. Near 3:10 p.m. on Friday, Scroggs was caught by police and taken to King County jail.
Scroggs has been a special education teacher for the Bellevue School District for a long time, according to the Bellevue Police Department (BPS). From January to April 2024, she worked for Newport Heights Elementary School’s special needs department. Police said that the jobs he has had in the past suggest “the possibility of more victims.”
According to the BPD, around 1:34 p.m. on June 6, school officials called the police after a mother said her 8-year-old daughter had been sexually attacked. According to police reports, the parent told the school that Scroggs often took the child out of class “to deal with the child’s social, emotional, and behavioral problems,” and that’s where Scroggs was said to have abused the child.
The 8-year-old girl told her mother, “He touches me down there,” according to the charges. The child said that Scroggs would tell her to lie on her stomach on a bean bag chair in the resource room and then “massage her back and buttocks,” according to the charging papers.
According to the charges, Scroggs would then tell the 8-year-old to lie down and “massage her front half of body in the areas from her breasts to genitalia.” My daughter told her mom that Scroggs did this to them while they were alone in the resource room.
Charge papers say the mother said her daughter told her that Scroggs told her he loved her as he was leaving school. Charge papers say he also gave the child “little bracelet gifts that he got from his travels abroad.” According to the police report, Scroggs told the student she could sit on his lap when they were by themselves as per KOMO News.
“The Bellevue Police Department takes allegations of this nature very seriously and is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all members of our community – especially children,” a statement from the BPD said.
The prosecutors asked that Scroggs’ bail be set at $100,000. His hearing is set for June 20 at 8:30 a.m. in King County court.