Mother, daughter testify in teacher's kidnapping hearing

HENDERSON, Ohio, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Henderson, Nev., woman wept during her testimony at a hearing of a suspect who allegedly kidnapped her daughter, 16, and made child pornography with the girl.

The unidentified woman explained the anguish of looking for her daughter, a straight-A high school student, who disappeared in late August to live with Melvyn Sprowson, 45, accused of the crimes, the Las Vegas Sun reported Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege Sprowson, an elementary school teacher, took the unidentified girl without her mother's consent, harbored the girl for two months, supplied her with alcohol and gave her a sexually transmitted disease before Clark County School District police found her at his apartment in November.

The girl, now undergoing intensive counseling, and her mother testified Monday during a five-hour preliminary hearing. Las Vegas Township Judge William Kephart, who will decide if the case goes to trial.

The girl recounted that she responded to Sprowson's online advertisement referring to himself as a "lonely millionaire." She texted him nude photos of herself and later met and fell in love with him, she said.

The mother testified her daughter "was an A student. She had a job. She had everything going for her. And then she comes back and says she's going to get a GED and do what? Get married [to Sprowson]?"

Sprowson worked as a teacher in California for nearly 10 years before moving to Nevada, and faced allegations of sexual abuse involving female fourth- and fifth-grade students. He was investigated but never charged, and did not lose his teaching certification, the newspaper said.