CLEVELAND — A former dance teacher at the Cleveland School of Arts has been found guilty on multiple charges of sexual assaulting eight of his former students.
According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, 57-year-old Terence Greene was found guilty on the below 65 counts on Thursday:
- 16 counts of rape
- 25 counts of sexual battery
- 1 count of gross sexual imposition
- 8 counts of felonious assault
- 13 counts of kidnapping
- 2 counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Kevin Kelley also found Greene guilty of being a sexually violent predator.
Greene is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kelley on June 8 at 9 a.m.
Prosecutors say from 1998 to 2019, Greene sexually assaulted eight students, all of whom were under the age of 18. The assaults occurred in the dressing room of the school, at events in and out of state, and at multiple residences throughout Ohio.
Greene was an acclaimed dance teacher who helped launch the careers of many young dancers, including some who performed on Broadway. He resigned from the Cleveland School of Arts, part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, in 2014. He later began working at Cuyahoga Community College's dance academy for children, where the abuse continued until 2019, according to prosecutors.
The victims reported the assaults to the Cleveland Division of Police in June of 2020. Two months later, Greene was arrested in New York by U.S. Marshals after being charged with sexual assault from abuse that happened in Sept. 2008.
In 2021, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District agreed to pay a $3.25 million settlement after eight former students filed a lawsuit accusing the school of failing investigate past claims of sexual abuse against Greene. Tri-C has denied being aware of Greene’s past claims of sexual abuse.
Greene had been found not guilty of sexual battery charges involving a student in 2004 and returned to teaching that year. The students' lawsuit said the school allowed Greene to continue to share hotel rooms with students on school-sanctioned trips.
