By CRAIG D. SCHENCK and KRISTEN KELLEHER/Sentinel staff
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — Christopher Denn, a former senior guard with the Ocean City Beach Patrol, as well as a gym teacher and swimming coach at Mainland Regional High School, pled guilty Feb. 13 to fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.
According to Cherie Fossett, Cape May County Superior Court clerk, the crime carries a maximum of 18 months in prison but as part of the plea deal, Denn will serve probation but no jail time and must forfeit his public offices, which he already had done. Sentencing is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. Friday, March 27.
The former lifeguard was accused last summer of exposing himself to a female subordinate at a lifeguard stand on the city’s beach.
Denn, then 48, was fired from his OCBP position Aug. 9, after he was charged with criminal sexual conduct and committing a lewd act.
Mainland School Business Administrator Kim Robinson confirmed Denn had resigned his position at the school Thursday, Jan. 2.
According to Sentinel archives, Denn, who was on duty as a lifeguard at the time of the alleged incident, reportedly fondled himself in front of a female guard at about 2 p.m. Aug. 9 in a lifeguard stand on the Surf Road beach in Ocean City.
Denn has served as a swimming coach at Mainland, Oakcrest and Egg Harbor Township high schools.
Attorney John Tumelty, who represents Denn, did not return a call seeking comment.
He said in September that Denn had been a schoolteacher for “a lot of years” with an “absolutely impeccable background as a teacher and a swim coach.”
Tumelty also said in September that Denn had been on the beach patrol for many years and “there has never been any allegation against him in all of the years on the beach patrol and as a high school coach.”