Long time area music teacher pleads not guilty to felony statutory rape, sodomy charges

Long time area music teacher Robert Andrew Pommert, 60, Joplin, waived his formal arraignment on felony charges of statutory rape and statutory sodomy Monday in Newton County Circuit Court and pleaded not guilty.

Pommer was bound over for trial following a February 25 preliminary hearing.








Pommert, 60, who has worked as an instructor at Ozark Christian College and Crowder College and who taught guitar at Palen Music in Joplin for more than 20 years, was arrested by the Newton County Sheriff's Office August 23 on the basis of information provided to investigators by the clinical child therapist at the Children's Center in Joplin, who reported receiving disturbing information from a three-year-old girl that indicated to her the child had been "exposed to inappropriate sexual behavior," according to the probable cause statement.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 3.