A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday sentenced former Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) teacher John Vigna to a 30-year suspended sentence for the sexual abuse of students at Cloverly Elementary School in Silver Spring between 2001 and 2016, according to the county state’s attorney’s office.
Judge Theresa Chernosky also ordered that Vigna complete five years of probation with multiple conditions including supervision by COMET (Collaborative Offender Management/Enforced Treatment), no unsupervised contact with minors and no contact with the victims or their families, the state’s attorney’s office said in a statement.
Vigna, 57, also will be required to register as a sex offender for the duration of his life, the statement said.
The former teacher, whose previous conviction for the sexual abuse of Cloverly Elementary students was vacated in 2023, pleaded guilty March 1 to one count of sexual child abuse and three counts of sexual abuse of a minor.
The plea agreement covers crimes Vigna committed between 2001 and 2016 as well as new charges that were filed against him on Nov. 30 that included sexual abuse of a minor and multiple third-degree sex offenses, according to the state’s attorney’s office. Vigna, who has served more than six years in prison, will face an additional 23 years if he violates probation, the release said.
In 2017, Vigna was sentenced to 48 years in prison for assaulting female students over a 15-year period. Vigna allegedly had students sit on his lap while the class watched videos or did independent work and then touched them inappropriately, MoCo360 previously reported. He worked for MCPS from 1992 to 2016 and taught third through fifth grade at Cloverly, according to court documents.
In July, Vigna’s conviction for sexually abusing minors was vacated after he filed for post-conviction relief in March 2022, in which he claimed ineffective assistance of counsel. On July 7, Circuit Court Judge David Lease ruled that Vigna’s attorney was ineffective and granted him a new trial.
In March, the state’s attorney’s office said Vigna’s admission of guilt was “paramount to the state and the multiple victims in this case,” preventing “further trauma to the victims who courageously participated in one trial and were retraumatized by the criminal justice system when the original conviction was overturned.”
Vigna’s attorneys Isabelle Raquin and Stephen Mercer declined to comment Tuesday. A secretary at the Raquin Mercer Law Offices said the firm has a “no press policy.”
