Plea deal reached in assault on teen
By Sue Lindsay
A former teacher at Graland Country Day School was sentenced Thursday to probation for 10 years to life and ordered to register as a sex offender for sexually assaulting a former student.
Meredith Hollen, 40, pleaded guilty to a single charge of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. Eleven other charges were dismissed as part of a plea bargain.
The victim and his family were not present at Thursday's hearing but support the resolution of the case, said prosecutor Verna Carpenter.
"They don't want to be present because they wish to keep anonymous," Carpenter told the judge.
She said the resolution was driven by the victim's and family's wish to keep the matter private.
"This family has been very, very devastated by this," Carpenter said. "They want healing for the victim and the family. They want more than anything for this to be behind them and to protect their privacy."
Hollen taught eighth-grade English at Graland but left at the end of 2006 to move with her family to California. Judge Martin Egelhoff said her sex-offender probation supervision could be done out of state.
The school's Web site describes it as a preparatory school for students in kindergarten through ninth grade. It is located in Denver's Hilltop neighborhood.
"The resolution of the case was worked out with the very best interest of our victim in mind," said Lynn Kimbrough, spokesperson for the Denver District Attorney's Office.
