Chad Denis Maughan, 35, a science instructor whose teaching certificate was once suspended in a pornography investigation in 2003, was charged Tuesday with two counts of third-degree child rape and one of second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, charges carrying a maximum prison term of five years.

Maughan was placed on paid administrative leave Monday, said Mark Wenzel, a spokesman for the suburban Bethel School District.

According to documents filed by Pierce County prosecutors in Superior Court, a friend of the girl told school officials the girl had talked of having sexual contact with one of her teachers.

On Monday the girl told an investigator she had three sexual encounters with Maughan in his classroom between Jan. 14 and Jan. 20 and had given him some lacy red underwear, prosecutors wrote.

Maughan denied wrongdoing or any knowledge of red underwear, but school officials searched his classroom and found underwear matching the description given by the girl and a sexually graphic letter from her, according to the court documents.

In 2003, while Maughan was teaching high school in the North Thurston School District near Olympia, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction suspended his teaching license for 60 days because of an Internet pornography complaint from the district to OSPI, agency spokeswoman Kim Schmanke said.

Such cases generally involve the use of school resources to view online porn, Schmanke said, adding that she did not have details on Maughan's case.

His teaching certificate was reinstated after the suspension.