WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A former Massachusetts school teacher charged with forcing into prostitution several women with substance abuse issues he had offered to help pleaded not guilty and was held on $15,000 bail at his arraignment Tuesday.

John Clayton IV, 63, of Northborough, is charged with trafficking a person for sexual servitude, rape, and witness intimidation.

Clayton, who sometimes used the alias Joseph Hallenbeck, reached out to vulnerable women on social media, offering them help for their addictions, a prosecutor said in court.

Instead, he would force them to have sex with him and would give them money and drugs in return, the prosecution said.


Police recovered video evidence of one woman being raped while restrained, authorities said.

Clayton’s attorney, Bradley Bailey, said his client maintains he was helping the women and said there may be a “consent defense.”

“He intends to fight the charges,” Bailey said.

Clayton taught in Worcester Public Schools for 10 years and for the past four years has been an adjunct faculty member at Quinsigamond Community College, Bailey said.

In addition to the bail, Clayton was confined to his home with GPS monitoring and ordered to surrender his passport and pilot’s license.