APma 05/28 1444 MA--Pornography Charge


   WORCESTER,  Mass.  (AP) -- A high school teacher on leave from
his  duties  has  pleaded  guilty  to  charges  of  taking   nude
photographs of young girls.

   Harold  L.  Hartman,  40,  of Auburn pleaded guilty Tuesday in
Worcester Superior Court to 10 counts of posing or  exhibiting  a
child in  a  state  of nudity.  Judge Robert V. Mulkern scheduled
sentencing for Friday.

   Hartman  is  on  leave  from  math  and  science  teaching  at
Shrewsbury  High School to work on an educational traning project
for Digital Equipment Corp.

   He was accused of taking the photographs of 10  girls  between
the  ages of 4 and 17 using a two-way mirror and a hidden camera,
according to a report read by Assistant District Attorney John P.
Haran at a hearing Tuesday.

   The offenses took place between June 1981  and  October  1986,
according to the indictment.

   Haran  said  Hartman  told  parents  to bring the girls to his
studio for modeling pictures or photographs for a gymnastic  book
he said he was assembling.

   While  the  girls  changed clothes in a dressing room, Hartman
photographed them through  the  mirror,  Haran  said.    He  said
Hartman  also told the girls to practice poses in the nude in the
dressing room and he photographed them while they were posing.

   Haran said three of the girls became suspicious "because  they
thought they heard the clicking of a camera."

   State  and  Auburn  police  raided Hartman's house on Oct. 26,
1986, and seized photographs of the girls.

   Four of the girls testified  at  the  sentencing  hearing.  "I
thought  he  was my friend, but he was not really my friend," one
said. "This will affect me for a long time, not just now."

   Dr.  Martin L. Fisch,  a  psychologist  from  Mountain  Lakes,
N.J.,  said  he  treated  Hartman while the defendant visited his
parents, who live in  New  Jersey.    The  psychologist  said  he
believed  Hartman would not survive in jail and he urged that the
defendant be allowed to serve some sort of community service as a
jail sentence.

   Hartman's lawyer, Conrad W. Fisher, said a local  psychologist
and several teachers will testify on Hartman's behalf at Friday's
sentencing.

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