A former Montgomery County Public Schools teacher has been indicted by a grand jury on sex crimes charges. The teacher had been suspended last year after a loaded gun was found in his desk at the school where he worked.

Jason Matthew Hensley, age 48, was indicted by a grand jury in four separate indictments that include four counts of felony statutory sex offense and four counts of felony sexual exploitation of a minor.

BOOKING PHOTOS FOR JASON MATTHEW HENSLEY IN STANLEY & MONTGOMERY COUNTIES

Hensley was issued a $1 million bond and records show that he is in custody at the Montgomery County Jail located in Troy, North Carolina.

Montgomery County is in the southern piedmont region of the state.

The indictments came down on Jan. 9 and he was arrested by the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office that same day. According to the indictments, the alleged offenses occurred between Sept. 2019 and Jan. 2020.

The warrant information shows the first-degree exploitation charges are tied to the time period between the start of Nov. 2021 and Dec. 30, 2021.

During that time, Hensley engaged two unnamed victims and showed them explicit materials of sexual activity. Three of the four sexual exploitation charges allege that Hensley “engaged in sexual activity,” specifically, intercourse, with a 14-year-old victim, for the “purpose of producing material of contains a visual representation depicting this sexual activity.”

Per multiple reports, the N.C State Bureau of Investigation was contacted by the Troy Police Department to investigate statutory rape allegations against Hensley on Jan. 28, 2022.

Hensley had previous legal entanglements involving his school employment and was investigated for having a loaded gun in his desk at Montgomery Central High School where he had been teaching. The gun investigation began in early Feb. 2022.

Prior to working at Montgomery County Public Schools Hensley had been a reserve officer with Mount Gilead Police Department.

As a result of the gun incident, the district initially suspended him and he was officially terminated from the police department that same month. The district said Hensley faced termination by the school system and opted to resign instead on Feb. 11, 2022.

State statute requires Montgomery County Schools to report Hensley’s resignation to the state board of education. It is unclear if the district has complied.

Records show Hensley has a North Carolina teaching license that expired in June of last year:

License Number: 1238348
Name: Hensley, Jason Matthew
License Type: Educator
License Status: Expired
Expiration Date: 06/30/2022
Effective Date: 08/13/2019
License Area(s): Health Occupations Education: Allied Health (6-12)