An elementary school music teacher in Long Island, New York, found himself in legal hot water when a local watchdog organization used Artificial Intelligence to expose his alleged misconduct. The teacher, Mark Verity, is accused of sending sexually explicit messages online to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

According to a statement from the Suffolk County Police Department, the 37-year-old Islip resident faces several charges, including “Attempted Dissemination of Indecent Material to a Minor 1st Degree,” alongside charges related to using a minor in a sexually motivated performance.

Verity’s arrest unfolded after Predator Poachers Long Island, a group dedicated to exposing predatory behavior, confronted him at his workplace. Prior to the confrontation, a member of the group engaged in online conversations with someone claiming to be Verity, who had shared a photo of himself. Unbeknownst to Verity, the supposed teenage girl he was communicating with was actually a 29-year-old member of the group.

The group employed AI technology to alter the decoy’s appearance, making her seem younger in the digital exchanges. Advanced AI tools further allowed the group to track Verity’s online activities and pinpoint his real-world location, as highlighted in a report by The New York Post.

This case underscores the growing role of technology in crime prevention and the vigilance of community watchdogs in safeguarding minors from potential harm.

“When he confessed, he realized his life that he’d been living for the past 37 years was now going to be completely off,” Mike Villani of Predator Poachers Long Island told Fox News Digital.

Predator Poachers Long Island called police, sparking the investigation into Verity.

“If you’re doing really heinous, evil stuff like Verity was doing, then you must have in the back of your mind that it’s only a matter of time before something like this does happen,” Villani added. “Normally, when we confront people they say they didn’t do this, or they didn’t do that, but in this case, Mr. Verity was very forthcoming about all the stuff he tried to do with this teenager.”

Fox News Digital attempted to reach out to Verity, but did not receive a response.

“Verity is a teacher in the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District. At this point in the investigation, there is no evidence that any student was a victim. The district is cooperating with the investigation,” Suffolk County police said.

Suffolk County police cars in Babylon, New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Wading River Elementary School informed the school’s parents that they removed Verity from the classroom before suspending him on Oct. 15.

“I am writing as a follow-up to last night’s message regarding a Wading River School teacher who has been removed from the classroom and will not be permitted on school grounds pending the outcome of the investigation,” Superintendent Gerard W. Poole said in a letter to parents, seen by Fox News Digital.