BRIGHTON, N.Y. — The former dance instructor at the Cleveland School of the Arts (CSA) who was accused of sexually abusing at least five male students when he was their teacher was arrested Monday afternoon in Brighton, New York by a U.S. Marshals-led task force.
Terence Greene, 54, was charged on July 21 with sexual battery by the Cleveland Division of Police for an incident of alleged sexual battery of a student at the CSA in 2008.
A lawsuit has also been filed by five former CSA students against Greene and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, stating CSA and CSMD officials ignored warnings and red flags about Greene’s behavior with the students.
Included in the accusations was a student who said Greene invited him to his house in 2008 to work on musical selections for an upcoming show. The student said when he arrived, Greene invited him to his basement, asked him if he had ever been intimate with a man, and rubbed his legs and upper thighs before the student asked him to stop and to take him home.
Greene had previously been charged with four counts of unlawful sex with a minor after a CSA student reported Greene had repeatedly sexually abused him. Greene went to trial and was acquitted in July 2004. He immediately returned to teach at CSA and remained there until he resigned in 2014 after allegations of improper conduct surfaced.
The former dance instructor was hired by Cuyahoga County Community College to teach children in 2015, but was removed in 2019 after a student filed a police report alleging Greene had sexually abused him off-campus.
After another former CSA student told Cleveland police he had been molested by Greene in 2008. Green was indicted on a third-degree sexual battery charge and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force gathered information that Greene was in New York and on Monday, authorities located him in a home in Brighton, New York and he was arrested without incident.
Greene will remain in New York until his extradition back to Cleveland, U.S. Marshals Service said.
Anyone with additional information about crimes committed by Greene is urged contact the Cleveland Division of Police sex crimes unit at 216-623-5630.