Christel Gravlin pleads guilty

The case against a Lisbon teacher accused of having an affair with one her students will not be going to a Grand Jury, as she has agreed to plead guilty to the charges.

33-year-old Christel C. Gravlin is scheduled to enter the guilty plea March 3rd in St. Lawrence County Court, according to a report in the Watertown Daily Times this morning. Gravlin initially plead innocent in December to Rape 3rd Degree, Criminal Sex Act 3rd Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Gravlin is accused of having oral sex and intercourse with a 15 year old male student on November 25th during the course of a relationship that lasted one to two weeks.

The affair came to light after an incident at a high school basketball game on November 30th, when, intoxicated, Gravlin made statements about an affair to a group of students and others who were sitting near her. Gravlin confirmed the affair in a three-page signed statement to police, attributing the affair to depression, alcohol, prescription drugs and pressure from the boy.

Gravlin is to plead guilty to a felony in satisfaction of all charges stemming from the alleged affair, according to District Attorney Nicole Duvé.

A guilty plea to a felony means automatic loss of her state teacher's license.

Gravlin, a married mother of two is a former beauty queen, having been chosen Miss St. Lawrence County Teen-Ager in 1990 at the age of 15 and was voted St. Lawrence County Dairy Princess the following year. She graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Potsdam in 2003 with a degree in literature, writing, and secondary education.

Newswatch 50

Note from Gag: She might have once been Dairy Princess but now she'd have to buy me a hell of a lot of booze to even make me consider letting her go downtown on me. However, I might still vote for her if there was a Rancid Milk Queen pageant.

Former Teacher's Aide Charged With Having Sex With Former Student

IOWA CITY - Police in Iowa City arrested a woman for reportedly having sex with a minor. According to police, Colleen Solberg had sex with a 17-year-old. Solberg worked with the teenager at West High School in Iowa City.

Solberg allegedly confessed to the crime. According to police reports, Solberg says she knew she "crossed a line" by having sex with him. KCRG-TV 9 went to Solberg's home, but no one answered the door.

The relationship reportedly started with Solberg passing notes and poems to the student in class. Iowa City Police Sergeant Troy Kelsay said, “There were innocent notes, if you were, that didn't rise to the level of any criminal violation."

It was not until the summer, after the teen had dropped out of school, that he and Solberg reportedly had a sexual relationship. Kelsay says while passing notes is not necessarily illegal, the sex acts crossed the line. As for the school district, passing notes is going too far. Superintendent Lane Plugge said, “You are expected as a staff member working with students of certain behaviors."

Solberg allegedly gave the student a cell phone. The district suspended her when it first heard from police in November. Solberg was fired five days later. Plugge said, “Our expectations for all people in the Iowa City Community School District is they conduct themselves in a professional manner."

The district believes Solberg did not act professionally or ethically. She was fired long before the police filed criminal charges.

If convicted, Solberg faces one year in prison. Kelsay says the charges could have been tougher if the young man was still a student when the two had sex.

KCRG

Note from Gag: What teacher passes notes to her kids? Kind of odd if you ask me...

Marla Meek receives sentence

By HATTIE SHERRICK-BURTON

Former South Beauregard High School teacher Marla K. Meek was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.

Meek, who was 34 at the time of committing the felonies, entered a guilty plea in December of 2007 to events that took place during the first half of September 2006 with a fifteen year old student who, according to court documents, was the son of friends of the teacher's family.

As stated in the written sentence by District Judge Herman I. Stewart, Meek, a mother of three, was sentenced to five years with the Department of Corrections on each count running concurrently, of which four years is suspended and she will be required to serve one year.

Upon Meek's release, she is to be placed on supervised probation for four years with numerous special conditions specified, including having no communication or contact with the victim or any member of his family, or unsupervised association any male juveniles, excluding her own children.

Upon her release, she is to seek out and obtain Court approved psychological group therapy for not less than three years.

Meek is required to pay a total fine of $1,500 plus court costs, and to make restitution to the parents of the victim for any cost of psychological evaluation or counseling up to the sum of $2,500, as well as a $55 monthly supervision fee to the Department of Probation and Parole.

Lastly, Meek is required to comply with all applicable provisions of the Louisiana State Sex Offender Registration Statute.

According to court documents, since entering her guilty plea in December, Meek's teaching certificate has been taken from her and her she will not be allowed to reenter the teaching profession.

Meek, who once received the designation of Teacher of the Year, had no prior criminal history.

Beauregard Daily News

Note from Gag: I sure wish I could find a picture of Marla. I'd love to see what the broad looks like.

Meredith Hollen gets probation

Would you hire this woman?

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.

Rocky Mountain News

Note from Gag: Is it just me or does she not look like one of the most manipulative women you'd ever meet in your life?

New Zealand Teacher, 35, denies sex with pupil

By Peter Hardwick

A TOOWOOMBA school teacher 2accused1 of having a sexual relationship with one of her teenage students denied the charges yesterday.

The 35-year-old woman responded with a clear "not guilty" from the Toowoomba District Court dock after each of five counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 was read out to her.

To protect the identity of the complainant, the woman's name and school where they met will not be made public.

Opening the case against the 2woman1, Crown prosecutor Paul Bannister told the court the allegations involved five separate instances of oral sex performed on the then 15-year-old boy from May, 2003.

Each of the instances are alleged to have occurred at the home of the woman and her husband and started weeks after the complainant boy's 15th birthday.

Mr Bannister said each of the incidents occurred about two weeks after the previous one at times when the complainant and others were visiting the woman and her husband or visiting another teenage boy who had been staying at the couple's home at the relevant time.

On the first occasion, the woman and complainant boy had been sitting on a two-seat lounge watching a movie with another teenager with the woman's husband also in the room.

Mr Bannister said the woman and complainant had pillows on their laps and it would be alleged the woman had touched the boy sexually.

A short time later, she had taken him to an ensuite where she allegedly performed the act on him.

Subsequent incidents had taken place in the couple's computer room and spare room, the court heard.

During one alleged incident, the woman had offered to give the teenager a massage and had taken him into the home's spare room.

She had then performed the sexual act on him during which time another teenager who had accompanied the complainant to the house that evening went looking for him, Mr Bannister said.

When that teenager went to open the door to the room, the door was x slammed in his face by the accused, he said.

More at The Chronicle.

Kylie Neighbors pleads guilty

Former Blanco teacher pleads guilty to having sex with student

Woman, 24, could face up to 30 days in jail and 10 years probation under plea bargain.

By Molly Bloom

A former Blanco High School teacher pleaded guilty this month to having sex with a student.

Kylie Neighbors, 24, is accused of having sex with a male Blanco High School student on Halloween last year, according to court documents.

Reached at home Tuesday night, Neighbors declined to comment on the case.

Hays County prosecutors and police in San Marcos, where Neighbors lives, handled the case.

Under the terms of her plea bargain, Neighbors will be on probation for 10 years, pay a $1,500 fine, perform 250 hours of community service and surrender her teaching certificate.

Neighbors is set to be sentenced and have her plea bargain finalized in state District Court in Hays County on March 17. At that time, a judge could also sentence her to up to 30 days in jail as a condition of probation.

Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe declined to comment on the case.

The police detective investigating the matter did not return a call Tuesday.

Neighbors, a 2006 graduate of Texas State University-San Marcos, began teaching English and coaching volleyball at Blanco High in August, Blanco school district Superintendent Cliff Gardner said.

She has been on administrative leave since Nov. 30 and resigned effective Dec. 13, Gardner said.

Continued at Statesman.com.

Christel Gravlin teacher sex scandal update

News video here.

LISBON, NY -- The case of the Lisbon High School teacher accused of having sex with her 15-year-old student could go to grand jury as early as next week.

Christel Gravlin, 33, admitted to police in November that she was having an affair with the boy.

Police say students initially came to them after they heard the intoxicated teacher talking about the affair at a basketball game.

The District Attorney has interviewed several witnesses in the case.

Gravlin was released under supervised probation and told to have no contact with the student.

News 10 Now

Note from Gag: This homely gal is 33! Omg, I would of thought she was at least 50. Well, I guess that's what drinking at every high school basketball game will get you in the end.

Parole official recommends Pamela Rogers stay jailed

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A parole official is opposing release for a former teacher with six years left on her prison sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old male student in Warren County.

Video: Pamela Rogers Pleads For Second Chance

Convicted sex offender Pamela Rogers got her first shot at parole at a hearing on Wednesday. She has been an inmate at a Nashville women’s prison since 2006.

Prosecutors objected to the parole. Rogers' father spoke on her behalf.Rogers, 30, is serving a 10-year sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old boy while she was a teacher at Centertown Elementary School in Warren County.

Rogers was first arrested in February 2005 and pleaded no contest to charges of having sexual intercourse and oral sex with the student. She served six months in jail and got a lengthy probation on those charges under the condition that she not contact the student or his family or use the Internet.

However, she soon sent the boy text messages and what the judge described as "lewd" videos and pictures of herself nude and engaged in sex.

The judge decided that broke the terms of her probation and ordered Rogers to serve the rest of her suspended sentence in prison.

On Wednesday, she said her time in prison has allowed her to undergo rehab. She claimed that she's been a model prisoner and is ready to begin a new life with her family.

Rogers said the reason she messed up her second chance was because of the lack of help she was getting in the Warren County Jail.

“There was no counseling, no type of treatment for me to recognize that everything I was feeling and thought was distorted,” she said. “Just had a horrible lapse in judgment. I made a terrible mistake. … Everything that happened, I know that I made the choices that I made, and I know it was my fault.”

Rogers' attorney, Peter Strianse of Nashville, said previously that she violated the court order because she had become obsessed with the boy. A clinical psychologist hired by Rogers' family testified at a court hearing that Rogers should be treated for "sexual addiction."

The hearing officer's nonbinding recommendation against parole before 2014 goes to the board for a final decision, likely in the next few weeks, board spokeswoman Melissa McDonald said.

Continued at WSMV. More info here and also here.

Note from Gag:
One thing's for certain, the poor girl is obviously suffering from lack of bleach blond hair dye.

Instructor accused of assaulting girl is suspended with pay

By Andrea Eilenberger

LOPATCONG TWP. | A seventh-grade social studies teacher charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl was suspended from her job with pay.

Keri Ann Brekne's suspension is retroactive to Jan. 23 and is pending further investigation, the township school board's resolution states.

Prior to the vote, Superintendent Michael Rossi said the Brekne situation has been a difficult time for both the district and administration. He said the district has discussed the matter with police to best determine what it can publicly say on the matter.

Board attorney Mark Toscano said he could not say whether the victim was a student.

"The board and the administrators have done everything that they can to protect the students while at the same time respecting the requests of the various law enforcement agencies involved," Toscano said. "As we are able to discuss more information and come into more information, the board will make it available in a timely matter."

Brekne was arrested Jan. 23 and at the time board member Ernie Gallant said Brekne was not actively teaching. Her salary is $46,012.

Brekne, 28, of Bethlehem, is facing sexual assault charges in Northampton County and Warren County. The alleged abuse in New Jersey occurred between June 1 and Sept. 30, records show. The alleged abuse began when the girl was 14 years old.

Pennsylvania court records show the girl told police Brekne drove her from her Warren County home to Brekne's Bethlehem home, where she was allegedly abused, between July 1 and September.

Board members also rescinded their appointment of Brekne as 2007-08 student council and ski club adviser. The board appointed Scott Yerger as the 2008 ski club adviser.

The Express-Times

Note from Gag:
I think everybody should know that I've always supported Scott Yerger as the 2008 ski club adviser. In fact, I dare say this whole Brekne scandal could have been avoided if Berger had the job in the first place. I knew Brekne would let this ski club position go to her head and start molesting little girls.

Bentonville Math Teacher Posts Bond On Sex Charge

A 32-year-old female Bentonville High School teacher accused of having sex with a student may have believed the sex was legal because the boy turned 18 that day, according to records filed in the case Wednesday.

Melissa Gayle Monroe of 7 Largley Lane in Bella Vista posted a $5,000 bond Wednesday afternoon for release from the Benton County Jail.

Bentonville police arrested Monroe on Tuesday on charges of second-degree sexual assault and furnishing alcohol to a minor. She is to be arraigned March 31 before Benton County Senior Circuit Judge Tom Keith.

The young man went to her house on a January evening while her husband was out of town, according to a probable cause affidavit submitted by Detective Mark Jordan. The boy later told police they had sex and he stayed the night.

Monroe was suspended with pay from the district, school officials said.

According to the affidavit, Monroe sent a text message to a fellow teacher at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 that read, "Help! I've made the worst decision of my life. And I don't know what to do." Monroe said that January night she was drinking and texting with a student. She said the student wanted to come over but she told him no. Eventually, he came over and they had sex three times.

The fellow teacher guessed which student.

Later that evening, Monroe texted, "You don't hate me do you?" and "At least he was legal. Haha," the affidavit says.

On Feb. 16, Monroe texted she was going to a birthday party for another student, although the fellow teacher warned her not to go.

Tuesday morning, the fellow teacher went to Principal Steve Jacoby and police were summoned. The student was interviewed and confirmed he had sex with his teacher. The student claimed she invited him over that night and he drank a couple of her beers, the affidavit says.

Monroe initially denied the allegations but then admitted having sex with the student, the affidavit states. Police asked her if the boy forced himself on her, and she said no.

Continued here.

Former Teacher Gets 6 Years for Sex With Students

Allena Ward Faced 90 Years Behind Bars

The chants of "racist" outside the Laurens County Courthouse were a response to what was going on inside.

"Their children have been damaged for life, but who cares," Rev. David Kennedy said. He is a community activist and friend of some of the victim's and their families. He believes Ward's punishment was very light because she is a white woman who victimized black children.

24-year-old Allena Ward was sentenced to 6 years in prison by Judge Casey Manning. She faced a possible 90 years behind bars for the six charges she was facing.

Ward pleaded guilty in September to having sexual relationships with five of her former Bell Street Middle School students in Clinton. She has been on house arrest for the last year since her arrest in February of 2007.

Reporter Kristen Nastasia asked 8th Circuit Solicitor Jerry Peace if this is a light sentence. "You can understand the families being upset," Peace answered, "But when you look to see how these cases are resolved, this is an appropriate range in how they are resolved. I would have been happy with anywhere from five to eight years and with six, that is in the range," Peace said.

Nastasia then took the racism concerns to Solicitor Peace: "Do you think this was a racist decision in any way," Nastasia asked.

"Did you see who the judge was? It's hard to say it was a racist decision when we had Judge Manning on the bench. You can be dissatisfied with things, but racism doesn't play in this case at all," Peace answered.

Judge Casey Manning is an African-American and Peace says Ward's defense team decided to plead their case in front of him.

An emotional case, where a young teacher admitted her guilt and apologized Tuesday in front of her parents, family and the five victim's families.

"I wish healing for each person effected by my carelessness and offer my deepest and most sincere apologies to these young men, their families and this community," Ward said in court.

Ward will likely only serve 85% of her 6-year sentence. She will have to be housed in a maximum security prison due to the nature of the crimes.

A psychologist also took the stand today in Ward's defense diagnosing her with dependent personality disorder and a sexual disorder. Dr. Deborah Watson blamed Ward's bad decision making, in part, to these mental issues.

WSPA.com