Ex-Las Vegas Catholic school employee faced threat charge in 2005

A judge set bail at $25,000 Tuesday afternoon for Todd Pomeroy, a former Las Vegas Catholic school teacher accused of leaving threatening voicemail messages at the school where he had worked.

Pomeroy, who faces three counts of threatening to cause bodily harm or death to a pupil or school employee, was headed to St. Viator Catholic School when he was arrested Monday, according to prosecutors. The school is located at 4246 Eastern Ave.

“We have concerns regarding this individual and his level of danger to the school,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Tim Fattig. “We’re concerned about his mental state.”

The voicemail prompted school staff to cancel classes for the day, according to an alert sent to parents, but classes resumed Tuesday with added security on campus, according to Catherine Thompson, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas.

The prosecutor said Pomeroy had called “numerous employees, numerous times” and told one of them: “I wouldn’t bring your kid to school today.”

Pomeroy suggested he was “half-crazy” and said authorities would have to use “deadly force” against him, according to the prosecutor.

“He made statements that only he knew what he was going to do, how he was going to get into the school and how he was going to leave,” Fattig said.

In setting Pomeroy’s bail, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman ordered him to stay off school grounds and to have no contact with school employees. Should he post bail, Pomeroy would be subjected to electronic monitoring.

“I have no way of knowing if you meant what you said in the voicemail messages that you left,” Zimmerman said. “I have no way to determine how dangerous you are at this point.”

A public defender said Pomeroy has lived in Las Vegas for 32 years with no previous criminal convictions.

But court records show that he faced a similar charge in December 2005, when he was charged with a misdemeanor count of “threatening telephone calls,” according to Las Vegas Justice Court records. The charge was eventually dismissed in October 2006.

Then in March 2017, Pomeroy was charged with misdemeanor battery. He entered a no contest plea in June 2018, meaning a defendant accepts a conviction without admitting guilt, but the case was dismissed in August after he completed impulse control counseling and 25 hours of community service, the records show.

Details of the 2005 and 2017 cases were not immediately available.

According to the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas, Pomeroy had not worked at St. Viator Catholic School “for a number of years.”

A school brochure dated February 2017 identified him as a physical education teacher and athletic director. It remains unclear when he left the school or why.

At the time of his arrest Monday, Pomeroy was working as a physical education teacher at the Centennial Hills campus of Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas, a charter school in the far northwest valley. He was no longer employed in that position as of Monday evening, according to a letter sent to parents and obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“We are writing to inform you that Mr. Pomeroy and CASLV have decided to part ways,” the letter, in part, stated. “We can assure you that we will be working quickly and diligently to find an educator that will meet all the standards you have come to expect from our teachers here at CASLV Centennial Hills.”

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.