An additional charge has been filed against a former Pella spanish teacher accused of sending explicit messages to students.

Juan Muñoz, 41, now faces two counts of sexual exploitation by teacher, pattern or practice or scheme, a class D felony. According to the Pella Police Department, the incidents of inappropriate messages occurred in December 2016 in Pella and involved two students, both under the age of 18. Muñoz was a teacher for the school district at the time of the offense. The additional charge was filed for a second victim after the Pella Police Department and Marion County Attorney’s Office consulted. Arraignment is scheduled on February 10th.

Pella Schools Superintendent Greg Ebeling tells KNIA/KRLS News the district learned of Muñoz’s behavior in December, which prompted the police investigation.

“We learned about it on December 2nd, and that was on a Friday,” Ebeling says. “And then by the next Monday he resigned. So after we had learned, he didn’t actually teach in the classroom.”

The Pella School Board accepted Muñoz’s resignation at their December 12th meeting. He taught spanish for Pella Schools this academic year after he was employed at Pella Christian Grade School in their Spanish Immersion Program, and prior to that, was an associate with the Pella School District. A replacement instructor has been hired for the remainder of the semester.

After learning of Muñoz’s illicit behavior, Pella police investigators took over a student’s email account and continued communications with Muñoz, receiving three unsolicited photos of Muñoz’s genitalia. Muñoz also attempted to invite one of the victims over to his residence while police were in control of the students’ accounts.

Court records indicate that Muñoz was sending inappropriate messages to student accounts, and the school district’s IT department was able to connect the former teacher’s personal and school email accounts. The search warrant served on those accounts showed conversations that were “grooming” in nature, and also included requests made by Muñoz for the victims to delete emails and change to private email.