Newton Teacher Facing Child Porn Charges Was Counselor in Westwood

A former Newton teacher facing state and federal child pornography charges was a camp counselor in Westwood during the mid-to-late 1990s, an official at the Jewish Community Center confirmed Friday. 

David Ettlinger, who pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the alleged charges in superior court, was a counselor for a couple of years until about 1997 at the Jewish Community Center's Camp Grossman, which straddles the Westwood-Dover town line on Dover Road. 

"It is factual and it was 15 years ago," Carol Trager, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for the JCC, confirmed to Westwood Patch on Friday.

David Ettlinger, 34, of Brighton, . Following the arrest, he was held on $10,000 cash bail in Brighton District Court, and the next day, he was held on $100,000 cash bail in West Roxbury District Court for charges of indecent assault and battery on a child and posing a child in a state of nudity. 

He was arraigned on Wendesday, Feb. 8, on separate charges stemming from an incident involving a girl he was babysitting. Those charges include:

• Five counts of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under 14
• Posing a child in a state of nudity
• Posing a child in sexual conduct
• Possession of child pornography
• Secretly recording a partially nude person 

According to the Middlesex County District Attorney's office, the victim Ettlinger babysat was not one of his students; the defendant's parents hired Ettlinger to care for her in her home.

Ettlinger has been ordered to be ; if he makes bail, he must not have contact with the alleged victim or her family and have no contact with children under the age of 16.