LI Man Accused Of Violent LGBTQ Threats Sued In Student Sex Case

BAYPORT, NY— Robert Fehring, 74, a retired music teacher and coach living in Bayport who was arrested last week on federal charges of making violent threats via mail to organizers of gay pride events on Long Island and New York City is also currently embroiled in a sexual abuse civil suit brought against him this year by a former Bellport student, Patch has learned.

In addition to the federal charges, Fehring pleaded not guilty last week to local criminal charges — fourth-degree grand larceny as a hate crime and fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime, police said. He is accused of stealing 21 pride flags from Sayville this summer.

In an August civil lawsuit, a female plaintiff sued Fehring, Bellport High School and South Country Central School District for what she accused was "repeated sexual assault and abuse" by Fehring while she was a minor and a student at Bellport High School in the late 1970s, according to court documents. The case was filed under the New York Child Victims Act.

The New York Child Victims Act, passed in 2019, allows victims of childhood sexual abuse a window of two years to file civil lawsuits with a much longer statute of limitations. That statute of limitations expired in August.

The woman said in the suit that Fehring began grooming her at age 14, using his close contact with her as a music teacher and the director of band, chorus and school musicals. The suit alleges that when the woman was a high school senior, he began touching her sexually without her consent.

"In January 1979, after rehearsals for the school musical, Mr. Fehring drove plaintiff to a dead-end street where he engaged with sexual contact with plaintiff without her consent," the suit alleges.

The suit also alleges that the sexual contact continued throughout the school year, at times taking place on school grounds. The school district was accused of allowing Fehring to resign, and providing him a letter of recommendation even after being told of the abuse by the woman and her parents, the suit said.

Leeds Brown, the New York City and Long Island law firm representing the former student, told Patch it was unable to comment on the case.

South Central Country School District and an attorney representing the school district did not reply to requests for comment. Fehring's attorney in the federal charges also did not return Patch's call.

The New York Times reported that Fehring once sued the Suffolk County Police Department for "false arrest" and battery when an off-duty police officer witnessed him hide a shotgun under a coat and enter an office building where he worked. Fehring lost the case, according to case records.

Regarding the federal charges, according to the FBI, when investigators searched Fehring's home in November, they found "photographs from a June 2021 Pride event in East Meadow, New York, two loaded shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two stun guns, and a stamped envelope addressed to an LGBTQ+ affiliated attorney containing the remains of a dead bird."

The maximum penalty on Fehring's federal charges is a five-year prison sentence.