Credit: Wesley Tingey / Unsplash.com
A former teacher with Haverford Township School District was sentenced to probation on Monday for allegedly masturbating at Whitemarsh Cemetery in Ambler earlier this year.
Matthew Gagat, 47, of the first block of Sterling Drive in Horsham, was sentenced to two years’ probation as part of a plea agreement with Montgomery County prosecutors, which saw Gagat plead no contest to one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure and all remaining charges dropped in exchange.
Sentencing notes indicate Gagat will be placed on sex offender supervision while on probation, and he will undergo a sex offender assessment and a psycho-sexual evaluation as part of his sentence.
A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt; rather, the plea is an admission that prosecutors likely had enough evidence to secure a guilty verdict at trial.
According to police, Gagat was allegedly masturbating at the Whitemarsh Cemetery in March, as observed by two dog-walkers who called police. The couple said they also observed Gagat “helicoptering his penis” and later “actively masturbating” behind another woman on a phone, police reports said.
On June 27, while out on bail from his first charges, Gagat was allegedly seen at Lenape Park in Sellersville, starting at a woman while masturbating across the river from her.
To read more of our coverage on the two arrests, click here.
