Charlene Schmitz guilty in student sex case

By Brendan Kirby

Charlene Schmitz twitched her head ever so slightly but otherwise showed no emotion this afternoon as she learned her fate in Mobile's federal court: guilty on two counts of child enticement.

In finding the Washington County teacher guilty of using a computer and cell phone to lure one of her students for sex, the nine women and three men on the jury evidently rejected testimony from her teenage daughter, who claimed that she used her mother's Yahoo account to send salacious instant messages to the student.

In addition to the 14-year-old girl, Schmitz, herself, testified today that she did not send inappropriate electronic messages or speak sexually with him over the telephone.

The 55-year-old Leroy woman faces 10 years to life in prison. A worst-case scenario drawn up by the U.S. Probation Office suggests a prison term of more than 12½ years to 15 years, under advisory guidelines.

But her punishment could be greater if U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose determines that the defendant lied during her testimony. Murphy said prosecutors would evaluate whether to seek a harsher penalty based on obstruction of justice.

Schmitz, who is 40 years older than the boy, also could face state charges in Washington County. Charges brought by prosecutors there remain pending before a grand jury.

Defense attorney Donald Briskman, meanwhile, said he consider an appeal and other legal options. "Anytime you don't prevail, there is disappointment," he said.

Innuendo-laced instant message logs taken from the teen's computer formed the heart of the case against Schmitz. But her daughter, Tanya Thomas, testified that she logged onto her mother's Yahoo account and pretended to be her as she traded instant messages with the boy, she said.

Thomas told jurors she had begun dating the boy after meeting him on the social networking Web site MySpace and started to suspect that he had inappropriate feelings for her mother.

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Note from Gag:
I feel the most sorry for Tanya Thomas. Not only did she feel she had to cover up for her mother's sexcapades but she also dated one of the biggest losers in Alabama. You can't live down shit like that...

Student testifies about relationship with Charlene Schmitz

Student testifies about relationship

Teacher stands trial on enticement charge

Thursday, February 14, 2008

By BRENDAN KIRBY

Staff Reporter

A teenage boy testified Wednesday about his relationship with a Washington County teacher 40 years his senior who is standing trial on charges that she enticed him into an improper sexual relationship.

The boy, now 15, told jurors in federal court in Mobile that he started dating Charlene Schmitz's daughter on Valentine's Day last year.

Throughout the course of that relationship, he testified, he began spending time with Schmitz, 55, who had been his eighth-grade reading teacher.

The teen also became friends with Schmitz's teenage son and started sleeping over at the Schmitz house in Leroy, which was about a half-hour from his home in Calvert.

One day, the boy testified, Schmitz drove to his house to pick him up for a sleepover at his house.

The youth said he and Schmitz struck up an intimate conversation.

"She started talking about cheating and how she didn't like it," said the teen, speaking in a calm, clear voice. "And I was thinking, 'This is a little weird.'"

The boy testified that Schmitz asked for -- and received -- a kiss.

So began a relationship that would be carried out over a cell phone that Schmitz paid for, and instant messages on the computer, the boy testified.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Donald Briskman, the boy acknowledged that he initially told investigators at the Child Advocacy Center in Grove Hill that the text messages he sent were to Schmitz's daughter. But, he said, he lied at the time to protect Schmitz.

Jurors saw a number of instant messages the investigators recovered from the boy's computer.Schmitz looked intently at a projection screen that displayed the words but showed no emotion as the conversations revealed sexually explicit chats.

"I wish U were old enough that I would not get into trouble," one passage from a June conversation reads. "I would not let any of the rest stop me."

The prosecution rested its case Wednesday.

Michael Black, a University of South Alabama instructor called as a defense expert, testified that there is no way to determine who wrote the instant messages. Anyone could have logged on under Schmitz's user name, he said.

But Black acknowledged that a user would need to have known Schmitz's passwords. And the boy testified that he had no doubt he was messaging with Schmitz, based on references made to things they had discussed.

Jurors saw a check for $125 that Schmitz wrote to the boy's mother, which was for a cell phone that she said was a present for the boy's moving from eighth grade to high school.

The mother said she was reluctant to accept so much money but that Schmitz insisted. The mother said she never cashed the check because she was waiting for the first bill to arrive and ended up turning it over the investigators.

She testified that she discovered her son's relationship when she saw a text message on his cell phone from Schmitz, which ended with "ILY," or "I love you."

"My first reaction was a double-take," the woman testified.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Murphy used her opening statement to hammer home the age difference between Schmitz and her student. She was born in 1952, the same year transistor radios came out, she said. The presidential race that year featured a contest between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson.

The teenager, by contrast, was born in 1992. That was the same year that Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus was born and the year of the University of Alabama's last national championship in football. Bill Clinton won the presidential race.

"That's how recent that was," Murphy said.

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Note from Gag:
This kid is obviously a two time loser with no taste in women. I mean he wasn't even old enough to understand the rule that you always check out a girl's mother to see how awful the chick will look like in X amount of years!

Charlene Schmitz's federal trial to proceed

"The victim loves her," Murphy told DuBose. "The victim doesn't want her to go to jail. The victim thinks that once this is over, they will marry."

By BRENDAN KIRBY

Staff Reporter

The trial of a Washington County teacher accused of trying to lure one of her students for sex will go on in federal court in Mobile this week as scheduled, a judge ruled Friday.

Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose to delay the trial on grounds that they needed more time to review hundreds of pages of medical records provided by defense attorneys past a court-set deadline.

Attorney Donald Briskman suggested he may offer the records to demonstrate that his client, Charlene Schmitz, suffers from an "inability or infirmity" that would prevent or inhibit sex.

Schmitz, 54, is accused of using a computer to lure a student for sex. The law does not require prosecutors to prove that sex actually occurred.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Murphy said she needed more time to hire an expert to interpret the voluminous medical records, which date back years.

But DuBose said she cannot imagine how those records would be admissible. At any rate, she said, prosecutors will have had the records for two weeks by the time trial begins Wednesday.

DuBose also granted a prosecution request to bar from the courtroom Leroy High School teachers and others in authority over the now-15-year-old victim when he testifies. But, she said, the law does not allow another request, that a barrier be erected to prevent Schmitz from having eye contact with the teenager.

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Note from Gag:
I can totally see how this fourteen year old kid could love her. Who wouldn't want to bang Grandma Funbags for their first time?