Lauren Redfern is an attractive, 25 year-old physical education teacher at Basalt High School in Colorado. Thursday she was arrested based upon a suspicion that she had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. The official charge is sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. Fox31.
But it may be hard to convict this teacher. Redfern is a graduated from Basalt High School in 2004. Just six years later in 2010, the high school hired her to coach the girl's basketball team and to teach gym class. Westword. The Eagle County Sheriff's office is being rather quiet about potential weaknesses in the prosecution's case. The Sheriff's press release read: "The sexual acts between Redfern and the student are believed to have taken place over the duration of approximately 4 months. These sexual encounters took place at the residence of both Redfern and the victim in El Jebel."
Here in lies the controversy. The so called victim was allegedly 17 when the sexual contact began. He is now 18, which is of legal age. Consequently, it may be difficult to prove sexual activity prior to his 18th birthday. Furthermore, the relationship was consensual so why waste precious tax dollars prosecuting this case? Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Colorado law allows for a 17 year-old to engage in consensual sex as long as the partner does not hold a position of trust, such as a teacher. Furthermore, an 18-year-old can have sexual relations with any adult, even his teacher. So in order to win, the prosecution must prove that the sexual acts started before the victim was 18 and that the defendant was in a "position of trust." This will be a tall task for a prosecutor given that the defendant was a female gym teacher.
Look for this case to never see a courtroom.
Update 2-20-12: Want to follow this thread on twitter? http://twitter.com/#!/Legal_Pub
Update 2-23-12: A substitute teacher in west suburban Chicago was terminated after she allegedly told a 10-year-old student to duct tape his wrists together. The incident occurred at Naperville's Graham Elementary School (Indian Prairie School District 204). However no charges will be filed. Police. Daily Harold. The teacher has not been publicly identified.
Update 3-3-2012: Another teacher, Stephanie Cobb, is accused of inappropriate relationships with a student. Orange City, Florida police say the 26-year-old teacher allegedly had sex with a 16 year-old student in her car. Student.
The charges are unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The Orlando Sentinel . Apparently, Cobb and the alleged victim exchanged 12,000 text messages over the course of four months. Prosecutors plan to prove that the victim admitted to having a sexual relationship with Cobb and that the relationship started when the two were discussing his college plans. WJXT-TV.
Cobb denies any wrongdoing. Daytona Beach News Journal. "It's fabricated, all lies," Cobb apparently said. Affidavit.
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21 comments:
Almost 25% of the population meets there significant other at work. So what do you expect when it comes to teachers?
Never thought of it that way... wonder what mortician's dates look like?
Boy school sure has changed since I was a kid.
The prosecutors may well have a case. It depends on whether this young man chooses to testify and if the jury believes him.
Not to bad looking for a gym teacher. I might have done a few up downs with a smile if I had a gym teacher like her.
My bet is that the young man says we didn't have sex until I was 18 and that she wasn't his teacher.
Just like Pink Floyd said:
"Teacher, leave them kids alone!"
Talk about bringing back memories....
Anon: do you say that with a curious smile on your face?facet
NOt sure she will get a trial. All this neg publicity makes a plea more likely.
Update 2-20-12: Want to follow this thread on twitter? http://twitter.com/#!/Legal_Pub
Update 2-23-12: A substitute teacher in west suburban Chicago was terminated after she allegedly told a 10-year-old student to duct tape his wrists together. The incident occurred at Naperville's Graham Elementary School (Indian Prairie School District 204). However no charges will be filed. Police. Daily Harold. The teacher has not been publicly identified.
When I was in High School we had a male gym teacher/coach that was strictly by the book…mister right, mister proper, no room for mistakes. He’d write you up a referral for any reason, and went as far as to sit up on the school roof with binoculars to catch students sneaking out for a cigarette, or to leave school early.
Yep, you guessed it…he was fired for having an affair with a female student while he was still married. This was about 10 years after we were out of school.
Later, when I worked a local bar as a bouncer he entered the bar with this girl, now a woman he married. Friends of mine from school were also in the bar and remembered his wrath. We all got together and wrote him up a funny, phony referral and I had one of the waitresses bring it to him…and we watched his reaction. The bar was very crowded since “Gerry Louis and the Playboys” were playing that night for nostalgia night. (lots of guys associated with the band that resembled Jerry Louis that night).
Anywho…we watched him read the referral and start looking around…than he searched out the waitress and asked who sent it, and she pointed to me and several high school friends standing near the back bar, that were all his students at one time, but much older now and laughing our asses off at him. He immediately came over and shook our hands and bought us drinks while saying, “did I deserve that prank”. He also said, “life has a funny way of showing us our weaknesses and hypocrisies, and boy did I get mine.”
We had a great time reminiscing about school days, especially those of us he ran down while trying to sneak out of school…he was a fast SOB back then.
And to tell the truth, when i was in highschool there were several female teachers my friends and I would have loved to have sex with. And as far as I know this never happened...except for that gym teacher years later.
Makes one wonder what else was going on back then that we were to naive about.
Video Guy: Thanks for sharing. Yes it makes one wonder what may have been going on behind the scenes in good old high school.
legal,
The thing that stuck in my mind about that night, more so than our x-coach encounter were the guys that resembled Jerry Louis the comedian…no doubt relatives. One, who must have been a grandson of the old comedian, was the spitting image of a young Jerry Louis. My friends and I were cracking up about this, “Look…there’s another one!” there were like three or four of these guys walking around the bar, but it was so crowded we never seen them together. We’d spot them as they would squirt from the crowd and appear at the back bar that was my station that night, to order a drink.
As for what was going on at the schools...A friend of mine who I played football with came back to be an assistant coach...he ended up marrying a student, quit his job there and went on to construction. I never asked him about it.
Makes me want to go to a class reunion
Update 3-3-2012: Another teacher, Stephanie Cobb, is accused of inappropriate relationships with a student. Orange City, Florida police say the 26-year-old teacher allegedly had sex with a 16 year-old student in her car. Student.
The charges are unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The Orlando Sentinel . Apparently, Cobb and the alleged victim exchanged 12,000 text messages over the course of four months. Prosecutors plan to prove that the victim admitted to having a sexual relationship with Cobb and that the relationship started when the two were discussing his college plans. WJXT-TV.
Cobb denies any wrongdoing. Daytona Beach News Journal. "It's fabricated, all lies," Cobb apparently said.
All of the female teacher will get off. A male teacher, he will get 10 to 12 years in prison for doing the same thing.
Perhaps we need to lower the age of consent. Naive innocent teenagers are far and few between now days!
Did anyone get hurt? The teacher knew what she was doing. The student knew what he was doing. I can't tell if the teacher quit or got fired.
I really doubt that the student is scarred and crying himself to sleep at night.
Sounds to me as if two consenting people got together and just had fun.
Right and wrong is a much grayer area these days. The difference between ignorance and stupidity has become very blurred. Technology has supplanted common sense with a blind sense of greedy need regardless of the outcome.
Kid got what he deserved, bragging rights. He bagged a teacher!
Talk about a notch on the old belt buckle or a resume builder...
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