Olivia Rondeau – 13 Sep 2024 – Breitbart and Lincoln Journal Star

A Nebraska man who posed as a high schooler for two months to sexually abuse teenagers was sentenced on Wednesday to serve the rest of his life in prison, KOLN reported.

Zachary Scheich, a 27-year-old who stands at five feet, four inches tall and weighs just 120 pounds, according to Nebraska station KLKN, pretended to be a 17-year-old student at Southeast High School and Lincoln Southeast High School named “Zak Hess” for 54 days in 2023.

Scheich, who graduated from Southeast in 2015, was arrested in July 2023 after authorities found out he was attending classes at the public schools and engaged in inappropriate relationships with minor students.

Investigators said he requested “pornographic material” and sex from a 13-year-old girl and sent explicit messages to a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old student.

“He targeted, groomed and lured them via social media,” Deputy County Attorney Amber Scholte said during his sentencing. “He did so under the guise of being their peer, their friend, and in some cases, their boyfriend. “And he did so for his own sexual purpose and gratification.”

Scholte added that Scheich is a “predator of the worst kind.”

The man fabricated documents and an “elaborate backstory” to pass as a fellow teenager, prosecutors said.

An associate of his, 23-year-old Angela Navarro, was also arrested in September 2023 on suspicions of helping Scheich get enrolled by posing as his mother under the alias “Danielle Hess.”

“Police said that once they’d discovered Scheich’s fictitious identity, they contacted Navarro on June 1, 2023, who insisted on their false identities,” KOLN reported.

Scheich was sentenced to serve 85 to 120 years behind bars, to be eligible for parole after 41 years, on two counts of child enticement with electronic communication device, two counts of first-degree sexual assault/forcible touching, and an attempt of class two felony.

He originally faced nine felonies but took a plea deal in July to get rid of some of them. 

“They knew not to speak with an adult male on social media. They knew not to meet an adult male by themselves, they knew how to defend themselves against that kind of danger,” Judge Darla Ideus said during the Wednesday hearing.

“They did not know how to protect themselves against you. Because again, they thought you were their peer. Their friend. And because you gained their trust.”

Scheich’s alleged accomplice, Navarro, has pleaded not guilty to felony criminal impersonation and was released from jail after $450 bail in April, the New York Post reported. 

KOLN also reported that the crimes cost the Lincoln Public Schools district $6,000.

“In light of this incident, LPS is reviewing our enrollment procedures,” the district said in a statement obtained by KLKN after Scheich’s arrest.

Judge sentences Lincoln man who posed as high schooler, calling him ‘significant risk’

Lori Pilger – Sep 11, 2024 – Lincoln Journal Star

Calling him a “significant risk to the community,” a Lancaster County judge Wednesday sentenced Zachary Scheich to 85 to 115 years in prison for posing as a teenage student at two Lincoln high schools to gain access to dozens of underage girls who he then exploited and, in some cases, sexually assaulted.

“The court concludes that the risk is substantial that absent a lengthy period of incarceration you will prey upon others,” Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus told Scheich in a courtroom packed with his victims.

Scheich, 27, and his public defender declined an opportunity to say anything first, opting instead to submit confidential letters to the judge.

On the other side, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Amber Schlote asked for a lengthy sentence, saying the judge was fully aware of the scope of Scheich’s abuse, its devastating effect on the children who became his victims and the ripples of that devastation through their families, loved ones and the community.

“He is a predator of the worst kind that preys on children,” she said.

She said Scheich used Lincoln’s school system and social media to gain the trust of the girls to exploit them, leaving many of them emotionally shattered, used by a man who they believed was a peer.

“He was, simply put, a master manipulator and predator,” Schlote said.

She said Scheich had manipulated the children, their parents, teachers and school administrators. And, when he got caught, he tried to manipulate Lincoln police, knowing he was guilty. 

She said the fallout for the 13 named victims and 30 others for which he wasn’t convicted was “immeasurable.”

Schlote thanked them for coming forward.

“Because of your bravery the defendant was stopped and other innocent children have been spared the same fate,” she said. “For that, you are heroes.”

In June 2023, Lincoln police received information that a 17-year-old student at Lincoln Public Schools named Zach Hess was in fact the defendant, Scheich, who was really 26 at the time.

Investigators said he had created the false identity, enrolled in public schools and was passing himself off as a 17-year-old student.

Posing as a high school junior, he began communicating with underage girls by text and other social media apps asking them to send him sexually explicit pictures or videos and trying to coax them into having sex with him.

Police said Scheich texted some of the girls for months, even meeting with their families.

Scheich, who graduated from Lincoln Southeast in 2015, went to Lincoln Northwest High School in the fall 2022 semester and Southeast in the spring 2023 semester.

In July 2023, police served a search warrant at his apartment and seized his cellphone, which turned up texts between him and girls ranging from 13 to 17, which the charges are based upon.

At a plea hearing in July, Scheich pleaded no contest to child enticement, two counts of first-degree sexual assault, generation of sexually explicit images of minors and attempted first-degree sexual assault.

In exchange, the state dismissed 10 other felonies.

On Wednesday, Ideus, the judge, addressed him directly. 

“Mr. Scheich, you did create and execute an elaborate scheme to give you access to children for the purpose of gaining your trust and then sexually exploiting and assaulting them,” she said.

Ideus said several of the victims knew not to speak with men on social media or to meet them by themselves.

“They knew how to protect themselves against that danger. Sir, they did not know how to protect themselves against you,” she said.

Scheich had gone to great lengths to convince them they were peers. 

Ideus said one of the victims wrote in a victim-impact letter that she no longer feels safe in school and her trust has been so broken that she never wants to leave the house. She said they were consistent themes through a lot of their statements.

In addition to the prison term, Scheich will have to register as a sex offender and be subject to lifetime community supervision as a result of the convictions. He also would face a possible civil commitment upon release.

As courtgoers walked out, two teenagers in the back row hugged and cried.

In the hallway, another teen and her father said they were “one of the fortunate ones.” 

“She shut him down, though,” her dad said.

The girl said Scheich added her on Snapchat by search, which seemed weird, then he started working at the same fast-food restaurant with her, and she noticed him staring at her in class freshman year.

She said she didn’t know he was 26, but he seemed creepy and it made her feel uncomfortable so she stopped talking to him. Her dad told police. When he saw Scheich was up for sentencing, he asked if she wanted to go.

It was a close one, he said.