A second former elementary school student has come forward with abuse allegations against a longtime Montgomery County teacher, pushing the timeline of alleged misconduct back to 1989 — four years earlier than previously documented complaints against him. The amended complaint, filed September 28 in Montgomery County Circuit Court, identifies the new plaintiff only as T.H. and says he was a second-grader in Daniel Picca's class at Candlewood Elementary School in Rockville during the 1989-1990 school year.
T.H. alleges that Picca isolated him after class, made him take off his shirt, and massaged his bare chest and shoulders, according to court filings cited by the Maryland Daily Record. The student also alleges Picca would manhandle him, subject him to physically aggressive and humiliating treatment, and direct other students to say he had a marble for a brain. T.H. is now represented, alongside the suit's original plaintiff, by attorneys at Andreozzi + Foote, a Pennsylvania-based law firm that specializes in sexual abuse claims.
Original Suit Centered On Kemp Mill Elementary
The lawsuit was originally filed this summer by Nicholas Moon, a former student at Kemp Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring. Moon alleges Picca exploited his interest in professional wrestling to isolate him, force him to remove his shirt, and submit to wrestling maneuvers and massages, per the same account from Andreozzi + Foote. The complaint describes Picca's conduct toward minor boys as a pattern of predatory behavior spanning multiple schools.
Both students' claims rely on Maryland's Child Victims Act, the 2023 law that eliminated civil statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse claims. The law's retroactive reach survived a legal challenge when the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled 4-3 in Archbishop of Washington v. Doe that the statute was constitutional, according to Justia, clearing the way for decades-old allegations to proceed against institutions like school boards.
Pattern Of Complaints Dating To 1993
The lawsuit alleges the Montgomery County school board acted negligently by keeping Picca in positions with direct access to students despite repeat complaints and reprimands about his behavior dating back to 1993. The pattern actually stretches further back: in 1995, Montgomery County Child Protective Services found Picca responsible for what it termed indicated child abuse, yet district leadership reassigned him across multiple schools — including Rachel Carson, Luxmanor, and Kemp Mill elementary schools — rather than terminating him, according to the Maryland Daily Record.
State educational administrative hearing records also revealed that Picca formed an unauthorized group called the Strong Boys Club during his tenure, directing male elementary students to remove their shirts, flex their muscles, slide on his lap, and pose for photographs, according to a report from WUSA9. That same 2015 investigation revealed that Montgomery County Public Schools maintained an internal confidential database tracking personnel who exhibited inappropriate or suspicious behavior toward children, drawing criticism from child safety advocates over why flagged staff remained in classrooms.
Firing Came Only After 2011 Dismissal Upheld
Picca was fired in 2011, but the district did not reach that point without a fight. Administrative Law Judge David Hofstetter upheld the firing in 2012, ruling that Picca engaged in a multi-year pattern of conduct that was reckless, brazen, unjustified, and of grave potential harm to his students. That ruling led the Maryland State Department of Education to admonish local school boards to review their personnel files for repeat complaints.
Picca's attorney in the civil case, Kevin B. Karpinski of Karpinski, Cornbrooks & Karp, P.A., did not immediately return a request for comment, the Daily Record reported. Maryland lawmakers have since altered the financial landscape for cases like this one: a statutory amendment to the Child Victims Act taking effect June 1, 2025, reduced the cap on non-economic damages recoverable against governmental entities, including county school boards, from $890,000 to $400,000 per claimant, according to Epstein Becker Green.
Separate Federal Case Pending In Pennsylvania
Picca moved to Pennsylvania after being fired from Montgomery County schools, and he now faces separate federal child pornography charges pending there. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2022 for transmitting information about a minor, with a superseding indictment added in March 2024 for receipt and possession of child pornography, stemming from a 2018 FBI investigation into his Swole Inc. website and Instagram account, according to court records reviewed by CaseMine. That federal trial is scheduled to begin in January 2027.
The civil claims against the school board focus on allegations of systemic negligence in personnel oversight rather than the criminal case, and Picca remains presumed innocent until proven guilty in the pending federal trial. Even as Maryland courts have narrowed some avenues for Child Victims Act claims — ruling in June 2026 that school districts are immune from liability for abuse occurring before July 1, 1971 — plaintiff attorneys have noted that Picca's employment from the mid-1980s through 2012 falls squarely within the window the law still allows.
