Fourth grade teacher from Oregon drove to Washington to meet teens for sex, cops say

An elementary school teacher from Oregon was arrested after he was accused of driving to a Washington city to perform sex acts with minors, police said.

In a news release, police in Redmond, Washington, said detectives with the department conducted an undercover operation to investigate the man. They created decoy social media profiles on location-based sites and dating apps posing as young teenage girls, the release said.

Detectives then used the profiles to communicate with Andrew Hammond, 50, who works as a fourth grade teacher at an elementary school in McMinnville, Oregon, police said.

During these interactions, which began in October, Hammond “was told several times that he was communicating with a 14-year-old female,” according to the release.

He later began interacting with another detective, who used a decoy profile to tell him he was speaking with a 13-year-old girl, the release said.

Hammond continued to have “sexually motivated” conversations with investigators, believing he was talking to two teenage girls, police said. After months of such conversations, Hammond suggested that he meet the minors at a hotel in Redmond to perform sex acts on March 25, the release said.

He was arrested by Redmond police upon checking into his hotel room. Officers searched his car and found evidence, including condoms, handcuffs and duct tape, that Hammond planned to engage in sex acts with the minors, police said.

Hammond was charged with four counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes, attempted rape of a child in the second degree and attempted rape of a child in the third degree, the release said. He’s being held in the King County Correctional Facility on a $100,000 bail, jail records show.

“I’m proud of our officers and detectives for their dedication to such an important initiative in keeping our children safe,” Police Chief Darrell Lowe said in the release. “Any time we can take child predators off the streets for such egregious crimes against children is a win for our community.”