HILLSBORO — A Loveland man with ties to Southern State Community College’s Central Campus in Hillsboro posted bond over the weekend following a pair of criminal indecency incidents alleged to have occurred on Jan. 23.
Police in Loveland said that Brandon Montoya, 39, exposed himself to a 5-year old girl in the parking lot of Westover Village Apartments in Loveland after calling the child over to the driver’s side door “to show her something.”
At that point, it is alleged the former professor at SSCC in Hillsboro committed a lewd act in front of the child, who in turn ran and told her stepfather what she had seen.
A press release from Mindy Markey-Grabill, Southern State’s executive director of human resources, stated that during the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 7 “the college learned from a media outlet that one of our full-time faculty members had been arrested. According to one news account, there was a similar accusation against this individual in 2016. The criminal background check conducted at the point of hire did not indicate any such incident.”
WCPO-TV reported that Montoya was a professor at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College from 2012 until resigning in 2018, at which point he began a full-time position in August 2018 at Southern State Community College in Hillsboro, teaching life sciences, anatomy and physiology.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati stated he was a volunteer football coach with the combined St. Columban and St. Margaret of York team, which are both in Loveland.
Montoya was in court last Friday morning with his lawyer to answer to charges of public indecency and criminal child enticement, and was later taken to the Hamilton County Justice Center and held on a $150,000 bond. He posted bond on Saturday.
According to court documents, Montoya admitted to driving the vehicle to the apartment complex’s parking lot, but only to, in his words, “eat a cheeseburger.”
“Without any information from the faculty member directly and responding only to the public information available through law enforcement, the college immediately took steps to identify replacement instructors for this individual’s courses,” the news release said. “As of Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, all course sections had credentialed faculty at the helm and students missed no instruction time as a result of this mid-semester transition.”
Southern State’s official statement concluded “the circumstances around this situation are clearly unfortunate and the matter is being addressed appropriately.”
WCPO-TV reported that Montoya was put on administrative leave pending termination.
Police said a security video from a nearby house showed Montoya’s car in the area, adding that information from a cold case four years ago helped them identify the owner and driver of the car in that video.
It said that no arrest was made in the 2016 cold case.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
