Seattle tutor charged with raping middle school student
Jan 7, 2025, 6:01 AM | Updated: 7:27 am
King County Prosecutors have charged an adult private tutor with sexually assaulting a minor after he was accused of raping a middle school student of his.
The tutor, Gregory Emmanuel Ward, worked for the nonprofit educational group City Year, a program that provides tutoring and other support to students in public schools. The assaulted student was enrolled at Aki Kurose Middle School. Ward specialized in math, reading and science.
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Investigators told KIRO 7 the suspect worked with the student for months before the two developed a “sexting” relationship. The relationship was exposed, and subsequently ended, when the victim’s mother caught the tutor groping her underage daughter, 13, in an alley outside of a restaurant. The student told her family she was going to meet some friends, according to court documents obtained by KIRO and MyNorthwest, but when she stopped answering her phone, her sister and mother tracked her location through her phone to the restaurant.
The defendant told authorities she “didn’t know he was going to harass her” when she agreed to meet Ward at the restaurant. According to court documents, the tutor has been charged with raping her inside the establishment. He also has been charged with taking explicit photos of the victim, as well as buying her vapes, clothing and sex toys.
Ward, a Chicago native who has lived in Seattle for the last four years, has been charged with second-degree rape of a child and communication with a minor for immoral purposes. His arraignment is in two weeks, and his bail has been set at $250,000. Ward does not have any prior criminal convictions or warrant history, according to court documents.
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MyNorthwest and KIRO has reached out to Seattle Public Schools and City Year for comment.
This is a developing story, check back for updates
Contributing: KIRO 7
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.
