CCSD teacher arrested on suspicion of sexual conduct with student
A Clark County School District teacher has been arrested on charges of having sexual contact with a student, according to jail and court records.
Lawrence Artl III, 37, was booked Wednesday at the Clark County Detention Center on felony counts of school employee engaging in sexual conduct with a pupil 16 or older and attempting to prevent a witness from testifying.
The school district said in a news release Thursday that Artl worked at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. School district police obtained a warrant for Artl on Wednesday, prompting Artl to turn himself in to authorities.
“The arrest stems from an investigation that was initiated at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts in February 2020,” the district said. “Artl has been assigned to home since February 2020, per the negotiated agreement with his bargaining unit.”
The website Transparent Nevada lists Artl as a biological sciences teacher with the county as of 2019. His pay with benefits that year were listed as $83,594.
An arrest warrant return hearing for Artl was held Thursday in the courtroom of Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Pro-Tem Justin Zarcone. Artl was not present for the hearing, but an attorney appearing on his behalf, Michael Castillo of the Las Vegas Defense Group, entered a not-guilty plea for the teacher.
Artl is out of custody.
“We are looking at a very serious case,” Clark County Deputy District Attorney Pete Thunell said in court. “These are very serious charges. The allegations here, as your honor can see, involve a school employee, sexual conduct. There is dissuading other students from talking about these things.”
Court proceedings did not provide further details on the specifics of the accusations against Artl.
Castillo and Thunell declined to comment.
Zarcone ordered Artl to have no contact with minors unrelated to him while the case is pending.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Sept. 23.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
