Walter Johnson High employee accused of filming students changing facing 8 additional counts of sex abuse of a minor 

James Mulhern III of Clarksburg released on unsecured bond on Wednesday

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July 29, 2026 5:33 p.m.

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A media services technician at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda who was arrested in April is facing eight additional counts of sex abuse of a minor connected to videos and photos obtained in a search warrant, according to a Wednesday bond hearing in Montgomery County District Court.  

On Wednesday, Judge Sherri Koch released James Mulhern III, 43, of Clarksburg on a $100,000 unsecured bond, meaning the bond is only paid if the suspect does not appear in court.  

Mulhern was initially arrested in April after a recording he allegedly made in 2018 was found, viewed and turned in by a student. The video allegedly showed underage female students inside a changing room near the school’s theater. 

Koch released Mulhern with several conditions, including no contact with minors other than supervised contact with his 4-year-old son, no internet access and a requirement to avoid Walter Johnson High. 

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Mulhern must also verify living at an address that is not with his mother, who he was previously living with, according to court proceedings. Mulhern’s mother was present in the theater department at the time of the alleged incidents and will likely be a witness, according to Erin Chapman, an assistant state’s attorney in the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.  

Mulhern was originally charged with one count of sex abuse of a minor and released on a $10,000 unsecured bond after a hearing in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville in April. Mulhern was later indicted on four counts of sex abuse of a minor due to the 2018 video having four victims present. Mulhern is on leave from Montgomery County Public Schools, according to a Wednesday email from district spokesperson Liliana Lopez.  

Following Mulhern’s arrest in April, Montgomery County police said detectives with the department’s Special Victims Investigations Division seized “more than 100 computers, cell phones, tablets and other electronic media from the school and from Mulhern’s residence” and were analyzing the devices.  

According to the charging documents for the eight additional charges, the devices allegedly had 15 videos from hidden cameras, 11 of which were taken at Walter Johnson’s girl’s theater changing room and costume storage area. The charging documents detailed the contents of six videos, which included female students changing with their underwear exposed. According to online court documents and court proceedings, the videos are allegedly from 2015. 

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Police also allegedly found “39 images featuring teen cleavage,” including photos of Walter Johnson students or screenshots from student’s social media profiles. Additionally, police allegedly found internet search history of pornography related to students and searches for “teen cleavage” and “girls of WJ,” short for Walter Johnson.  

In court Wednesday, Chapman asked Koch to hold Mulhern on bond, noting that the case was still under investigation and the office had concerns about the safety of the community due to these charges being the second of this nature. Chapman said the videos found in Mulhern’s home were of new victims.  

David Wooten, Mulhern’s attorney, said in court that while the charges were related to more videos, the facts about Mulhern were the same, including that the videos were several years old. Wooten said that Mulhern completed a “psychosexual evaluation” and was determined to have a low chance of recidivism. Wooten also noted that Mulhern was attending sex specific therapy and self-help groups and that Mulhern’s family, including his mother and father-in-law, were present as support. Wooten declined to comment following the bond hearing Wednesday. 

The original charges 

According to charging documents for the first charge of sex abuse of a minor, two students at the school noticed a video camera in the control booth of the theater on April 7. They attempted to watch a video stored on the camera but were unable to. One of the students then copied the camera’s memory card to his laptop, and saw  a recording of students undressing in a changing room near the theater.  

According to the documents, a man is seen placing the camera and leaving the room while it is recording. Shortly after, female students enter the room and begin changing into costumes, the documents said.   

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At the end of the video, according to the charging documents, the same man comes back and approaches the camera to turn it off. The student who watched the video emailed the contents of the memory card to Walter Johnson Principal Nicole Morgan on April 15.    

Police said in April that the original video was from 2018 and showed four students in “various stages of undress” in the school theater’s dressing room, although no nudity is visible.  

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine