A Marion County judge handed down probation instead of prison time yesterday to Julian Wachner, the once-celebrated classical music conductor who was working as a fourth-grade math teacher at an Indianapolis charter school when investigators say he spent months buying child sexual abuse material with cryptocurrency. Judge Jeffrey Marchal sentenced Wachner to six years, with all but five days suspended to probation, meaning he will serve no additional jail time beyond credit for time already served.
The sentence fell well short of what prosecutors could have pursued. According to WTHR, Wachner pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of child sex abuse material and one reduced count of possession of cocaine, and Marion County prosecutors had noted their plea agreement allowed for up to 10 years in the Indiana Department of Correction, according to WIBC. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the allegations included the sexual abuse of children, including infants, and noted that Wachner allegedly had access to children at school.
How the Investigation Unfolded
The case began not with a tip from police but from a financial institution. Robinhood notified authorities on August 8, 2025, that a user was using its app to buy child pornography, per court documents cited by WTHR's reporting. That report fed into a formal probe by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children unit, which received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on August 11, 2025, according to WIBC — a timeline that led detectives to a search warrant at Wachner's North Pennsylvania Street home nine days later.
Police recovered Wachner's laptop, an external hard drive, and cocaine during that search. Court documents state Wachner had a stash of cocaine sitting next to his laptop, and that an external hard drive containing child sex abuse material had been downloaded onto the machine. Wachner's suspicious Robinhood activity occurred between August 22, 2024, and February 14, 2025, and according to court documents he spent $840 buying content through the platform.
Allegations of Years-Long Conduct
Wachner admitted to police that he knew the dark website distributed child sex abuse material, according to court documents referenced by WTHR, and Robinhood separately reported that he had transferred cryptocurrency to a dark website known as a major provider of such material. Wachner allegedly told police his preference was material involving children between ages 6 and 13, though he allegedly described material depicting minors between ages 1 and 16. He allegedly used cryptocurrency hundreds of times to make purchases from the site.
Deputy Prosecutor Kristina Korobov said Wachner allegedly admitted to engaging in the conduct for years, at times deleting the material afterward. Chris Bailey, whose comments were included in WTHR's reporting, said child exploitation ranks among the most disturbing crimes investigated by detectives. Digital forensic work behind the case was extensive: court records described by WIBC show Wachner routed cryptocurrency transfers through roughly 37 digital wallet addresses to acquire the illicit material, a chain detectives laid out across a 30-page probable cause affidavit.
Prosecutors had initially charged Wachner in August 2025 with 10 counts of possession of child sex abuse material and possession of cocaine. He ultimately pleaded guilty to five of those counts, each a Level 5 felony, along with a reduced cocaine possession count also charged as a Level 5 felony. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears noted that the case marked the first time his office had prosecuted a child sexual abuse material case involving dark web cryptocurrency transactions.
Registered Sex Offender, No Prison Time
Under Indiana Code § 35-50-2-6, a Level 5 felony carries a statutory range of one to six years in prison with an advisory sentence of three years and fines of up to $10,000 per count, according to Justia Law. Judge Marchal's choice of probation over any active sentence fell at the far low end of what the law and the plea deal allowed across Wachner's five felony counts.
Wachner must now register as a sex offender. Under Indiana Code § 11-8-8-4.5 and § 11-8-8-5, that designation requires him to submit residential addresses, employment details, vehicle information, and online account handles to local law enforcement, with ongoing verification required through the county sheriff's department, per FindLaw. He received credit for five days already served.
A Charter School Teacher With a Hidden Past
Before his arrest, Wachner was working as a fourth-grade math teacher at Invent Learning Hub, a tuition-free, mayor-sponsored public charter school on Indianapolis's southeast side that hired him in 2024 after a background check, according to The Mind Trust. The K-8 school informed parents in August 2025 that his alleged crimes occurred off school grounds. Invent Learning Hub did not provide a statement despite multiple requests from WTHR.
Wachner's rise and fall reads like a case study in reputational whiplash. His Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra biography describes him as a multi-Grammy-nominated conductor, composer, and keyboardist, and he was named one of Musical America's top 30 professionals of 2018. His website still lists six compositions available for purchase and 13 conducting albums, with a catalogue spanning orchestral, opera, choral-orchestral, chamber, solo vocal, and Christmas works.
A Career That Had Already Unraveled Once Before
Wachner's Indianapolis arrest was not his first brush with scandal. In March 2022, Trinity Church Wall Street in New York fired him from his $400,000-a-year position as director of music and the arts, following a third-party investigation into a 2014 sexual misconduct allegation brought by a former Juilliard School employee, as reported by The New York Times. He had served as the church's music director for 11 years.
Wachner later sued Juilliard for defamation over the firing; that suit was dismissed with prejudice in New York Supreme Court. Separately, a Georgia court in 2024 ordered his accuser to pay $117,892 in damages after a witness testified she had made unfounded sexual misconduct claims against multiple men, according to Slippedisc.
After Wachner's August 2025 arrest in Indianapolis, the international classical music world moved quickly to distance itself. Both the U.S.-based Concerto Vocale Foundation and Germany's Tölzer Knabenchor boys' choir cut all ties with him and publicly warned parents and choir members to avoid any contact, per BackstageClassical's reporting, noting Wachner had been conducting Bach cantata recordings in Munich shortly before his arrest.
