Former teacher sentenced to five years on child pornography charge

A former teacher and coach at a Montgomery County private school was sentenced to five years in prison for receiving child pornography, federal authorities said.

A federal judge in Baltimore also ordered John Kovach Jr., 53, who worked at Mater Amoris Montessori School in Ashton, to be supervised after his release. Kovach also was an assistant field hockey coach at Towson University, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland.

Federal prosecutors said Baltimore authorities were contacted in February by a California investigator who said Kovach, of Reisterstown, Md., had engaged in sexually explicit conversations on the Internet with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. That led to a search of Kovach's home and the schools, where authorities said they found the pornography.

-- Maria Glod