A 51-year-old language teacher at Longmont High School was arrested a day after a woman told police she saw him at a Longmont Starbucks involved in what appeared to be an inappropriate relationship with a student younger than 16.
Alex Laird Tinsley was being held without bond Wednesday in the Boulder County Jail.
The investigation began Tuesday after police received a call from a woman who said she saw Tinsley and a young teenage girl being “obviously intimate,” said Longmont police Cmdr. Tim Lewis.
Patrol officers arrived and talked to Tinsley, who insisted the relationship was as teacher and student.
“We had no evidence at the time, but our officers worked through the night and found probable cause that this was a relationship that had been going on for several months,” he said.
Tinsley, a Boulder resident, was put on paid suspension from his job teaching Japanese at Longmont High School. He faces a felony charge of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, with a pattern of abuse.
