Updated: 10/14/2009 6:11:30 AM
By Kate Howard, The Tennessean
Four years before Louis Jay Levine was indicted on charges of producing child pornography, someone complained to the state that Levine had sexually abused him years earlier.
At the time of the complaint, Levine was working as a substitute teacher at Metro Nashville Public Schools and also taught nature-related programs at the Jewish Community Center. A then 42-year-old man told the Tennessee Department of Children's Services that when he was a teenager Levine sexually abused him. He reported the alleged abuse in 2005 in hopes of preventing Levine from working with children any longer.
Though the DCS complaint was made four years ago, it wasn't until April of this year that Levine, 52, was arrested by federal agents on charges of producing child pornography with an extensive hidden camera system in his home. He also has been charged in state court with multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and sexual battery by an authority figure. Reports filed this week in Davidson County Criminal Court document the extent of accusations against Levine by more than a dozen people - young people who spent time at Levine's Alton Road home recently, and adults who frequented the house when they were teenagers decades ago.
Rob Johnson, spokesman at DCS, said he can't speak specifically about the 2005 complaint made about Levine, but the agency is not able to launch a search for possible victims based on something that may have happened years ago.
"We, as a government agency, are required to weigh the rights of individuals who may be targeted for an investigation against the rights of children to be protected from any abuse," Johnson said. "We would always err on the side of child protection, but we would need specific enough information to know whom we are protecting, and from what."
The complaint to DCS notes that the allegations were referred to internal affairs.
No information was filed with the court about the outcome of any DCS investigation.
A police investigation began in late March, when a concerned parent told a Metro detective that her teenage son and other teenagers were given alcohol and marijuana at Levine's house and allowed to use the bedrooms for sex.
Investigators allege that the teenagers were taped having sex and hundreds of home videos were found at the house.
Concern raised
Just before the federal investigation began, a teacher voiced a concern about Levine at the Murfreesboro City Schools, where Levine began teaching full-time in 2008.
The human resources director, Lee Wilkerson, told investigators he had gotten an e-mail from another teacher saying Levine was paying a lot of attention to a certain student and took pictures of him, according to court documents.
No action was taken until the school district learned of the federal investigation.
School officials interviewed the elementary school student and he said he didn't feel like Levine was paying him any special attention, Wilkerson said.
Once the teacher made the complaint, Wilkerson said that Levine, who taught districtwide, never returned to that particular school.
He was arrested soon after on federal charges stemming from the investigation in Davidson County.
"As soon as we began to ask questions, that's when the (federal) investigation began," Wilkerson said.
Levine is also facing a civil lawsuit from a family that says he victimized three of its children. The family got permission from a judge to leave their names off the suit, filed last week in Davidson County Circuit Court.
The family is asking for $1 million in damages from Levine for each of the victims, alleging that his conduct in videotaping the children had intentionally caused emotional distress.
