A former middle school teacher, already facing charges for possessing child pornography, was reportedly caught peeking into a youth hockey team’s locker room during a tournament in Wisconsin on Monday.
Adam Thiel, age 33, was taken into custody for the second time in under a year at the Woodman’s Sports and Convention Center in Janesville.
Witnesses claim Thiel entered a locker room where several male students were changing. When questioned by police, he confessed to being in the locker room, as detailed in a criminal complaint.
He appeared in Rock County Court on Tuesday, with bail set at $25,000 related to a charge of violating bail conditions.
Thiel previously taught sixth grade at Franklin Middle School in Janesville. Last October, he was indicted and jailed on multiple counts—ten, to be exact—of child pornography possession.
The events leading to his first arrest involved a sting operation by special agents from the Department of Homeland Security. An agent, posing as a father of an 8-year-old girl, engaged Thiel on the messaging app Kik.
Thiel allegedly expressed troubling interests in “incest and youth” and even talked about his attraction to his nieces, although he claimed to hold back any actions because they were “too young,” according to the complaint.
He supposedly believed the agent’s story and requested a photo of the agent’s daughter, sharing an image of a student he claimed was taken at work in return.
In one disturbing message, Thiel was quoted saying, “If I had my way, I would put one of them under my desk,” referencing the student’s photo.
At another point, he shared a nude photo of his wife in the shower, expressing that he was unaware it had been taken or sent.
Thiel’s first arrest occurred in early September. The school responded by placing him on paid administrative leave until formal charges were filed a month later. Initially, he faced accusations of sharing explicit photos of his wife and filming her without her consent.
In March, Thiel’s bail was reduced from $100,000 to $10,000, and he was released the same day, according to reports.
A preliminary hearing for Thiel is set for June 22, with a separate hearing for his child pornography case scheduled for July 27.
