Christopher Gempp, age 36, of 15 Elm St., Apt. 10, Derry

NASHUA – Arraignment has been scheduled for mid-July for Christopher Gempp, the middle school teacher and one-time summer theater camp music director arrested in Nashua last week on allegations he solicited sex online from a person he believed was 14 years old and arranged for the two to meet.

Gempp, 36, of 15 Elm St., Apt. 10 in Derry, allegedly drove to Nashua last Wednesday with four condoms in his pocket, after having allegedly set up a time and place to meet the individual, who was in reality an undercover Nashua police detective, according to police.

Shortly after Gempp arrived at the agreed-upon meeting place, which police didn’t identify except to describe it as “a predetermined location in Nashua,” members of the department’s Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Unit took him into custody, apparently without incident.

Police charged him with one count each of certain uses of computer services prohibited, and attempted felonious sexual assault, both Class B felonies.

Gempp was booked at police headquarters, at which time his bail was set at $5,000 cash or surety.

He later made bail, and was released pending arraignment, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. July 16 in Hillsborough County Superior Court South.

Until his arrest, Gempp was a technology teacher at Timberlane Regional Middle School in Plaistow. The school is one of several in the Timberlane Regional School District, which includes children who live in Kingston, Atkinson and Danville as well as Plaistow.

District Superintendent Earl Metzler said in a statement he issued upon learning of Gempp’s arrest that Gempp was removed immediately “from all of his responsibilities and placed on leave.”

Metzler stated neither he nor the district were involved in the Nashua police investigation into Gempp, nor were they aware of the investigation until Gempp was arrested.

Metzler said that to date, Timberlane district officials have not been informed of “any incidents or conduct involving any students in the district.”

He added that school officials urge anyone with any information regarding the case to contact Nashua police at 594-3500.

As for the investigation that led to Gempp’s arrest, police said it began April 20, when the detective “received a message on an undercover profile” he’d created on the dating application Grindr from “a male later identified (allegedly) as Christopher Gempp.”

Police said the case is among those on which the department works in partnership with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, with which the department is affiliated.

The task force works with local police agencies “to combat child exploitation in New Hampshire,” police said.

Meanwhile, police said the detective Gempp allegedly thought was a 14-year-old male told Gempp his parents “would be returning back to work” the week of June 1 “and that he would be home alone” from then on.

Gempp and the person he allegedly believed to be the young male discussed various subjects via their messages, according to police reports. The topic of sex came up on occasion, police said, and eventually the messages became more detailed and explicit.

On Wednesday, about 40 minutes before he was arrested, Gempp allegedly messaged the person he thought was the young male, giving him a description of his clothing and his vehicle, and told him his location.

The detective communicated the information to another POP Unit detective, who located Gempp at a local grocery store and followed him to the pre-determined location, police said.

Upon Gempp’s arrival, officers approached and took him into custody.

In a post-arrest interview, police said Gempp admitted to communicating on two social media apps “with an individual who said he was 14 years old, and had sexual conversation …,” police said.

Gempp also allegedly told police he came to Nashua … to meet the 14-year-old “but claimed he only planned on telling the juvenile not to engage in sexual activity, and did not plan on going through with any of the sexual things he had mentioned in his messages,” according to police reports.

Police ask that anyone with any additional information on the case contact police on the department’s Crime Line, 589-1665.

Anyone wishing to anonymously report cases of child exploitation can also call the Crime Line, police said.

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Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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