Michael Scheeler Guilty, Classified As Sexually Violent Predator

Michael Scott Scheeler -- declaring "I was rebelling against God" -- was classified as a sexually violent predator and sentenced to up to 26 years in state prison Wednesday for videotaping exchange students in the bathroom and bedrooms of his home.

As a sexually violent predator, Scheeler will be listed on the sexual offender registry for life.

Scheeler, 43, of Lower Milford Township hosted foreign exchange students from Faith Christian Academy in Sellersville, Bucks County. He was arrested for them while they were in the bathroom and bedrooms.

Scheeler filmed teens between the ages of 16 and 18. Four were part of the exchange program and three lived with Scheeler. The exchange students came from Korea and Spain. Two Americans were also videotaped.

Trouble with his father and his daughter's fight with diabetes led him to make bad decisions, Scheeler said in Lehigh County Court Wednesday.

"I was rebelling against God," he said.

Scheeler had given the teens alcohol, sex toys -- including a blow-up doll and a fake penis -- and access to firearms, according to the charges. Pictures show one of the students pointing a gun at the head of another, Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristi Morffi told the court.

Scheeler claimed the teens would have tried to gain access to alcohol regardless and said the doll was meant as a birthday prank.

“They tried to paint me as a monster. I fulfilled dreams for these guys,” Scheeler said in a written letter to the court.

Det. Kevin Smith, a child sexual and physical abuse investigator, was called as a witness to report on the 57 DVDs the police had found in Scheeler's home. The recordings of the teens were dated and specified.

“It was the most disgusting period of time in my life,” Smith of watching the DVDs.

Morffi and defense attorneys presented expert witnesses to determine whether Scheeler should be classified as a sexually violent predator. A defense witness, citing no history of prior behavior and no attempt to physically touch the students, disagreed that Scheeler should be classified as a sexually violent predator.

Veronique Vallieri, a prosecution witness, said she diagnosed Scheeler with voyeurism and paraphilia (unusual sexual arousal) toward older adolescent males. But defense witness Dr. Frank Dattilio tried to play down the diagnosis. “He clearly diluted boundary lines,” Dattilio said of Scheeler.

Both experts did agree that Scheeler was attracted to teen boys. Judge Lawrence Brenner then classified Scheeler as a sexually violent predator.

Scheeler had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of child pornography and invasion of privacy.