Teacher Charged in Sex Case in O.C.

An Orange County teacher accused of molesting a teenage boy over three years was arrested at his school Thursday morning, sheriff’s and school officials said.

Daniel Eugene Havlik, 51, teaches at Stacey Middle School in Huntington Beach, said Trish Montgomery, spokeswoman for Westminster School District, which includes Stacey.

Havlik was called out of his classroom and taken into custody by Orange County sheriff’s deputies in the school office, Montgomery said, and some students and parents said they saw him being led away in handcuffs.

The Orange County district attorney’s office has charged Havlik with two counts of sodomy and 18 counts of oral copulation with a boy.

According to sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino, the acts began in 1997 when the boy was 14 and continued for three years. The encounters reportedly occurred in Havlik’s Lake Forest home, Amormino said.

Montgomery said the alleged victim was a former Westminster School District student who did not attend Stacey.

She declined to say what school he attended.

The former student, now 22, approached the Sheriff’s Department this summer with the accusations after several years of psychological therapy, Amormino said.

He added that investigators had evidence of at least one more victim and “fear that there could be many more.”

School officials sent a letter home to parents informing them of the arrest and ensuring them that Havlik “absolutely will not be returning unless he is cleared of all the charges,” Montgomery said, adding that Havlik had been placed on administrative leave.

Havlik is being held at Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana on $200,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach this morning.