Woman teacher who had sex with students may not appeal
Joe Wessels
Reuters US Online Report Domestic News
Oct 28, 2011 19:34 EDT
CINCINNATI, Ohio (Reuters) – A female teacher convicted of having sex with five male high school students and sentenced to four years in prison is unlikely to appeal, her attorney said on Friday.
“After speaking with her family, I think it is unlikely,” said Charles M. Rittgers, one of the attorneys who represented Stacy Schuler, a 33-year-old former gym teacher.
The woman was convicted on Thursday of 16 felony counts of sexual battery and three misdemeanor counts of providing alcohol to minors when she was a teacher at Mason High School in a suburb of Cincinnati.
Rittgers said she will be sent to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, Ohio and may be eligible for parole in as little as six months.
Five male students testified that they had partied at Schuler’s residence where they smoked marijuana and drank alcoholic drinks. Her defense team decided for a bench trial, where the judge decides the verdict, as opposed to a jury trial.
During the trial, Schuler’s attorneys argued she was legally insane and that medication she was taking caused her to act irrationally.
The victims were 16 and 17-year-old boys. The age of consent in Ohio is 16 years, but teachers are barred from having sex with their students. So Schuler was convicted of sexual battery even though the victims had reached the age of consent.
(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)
Source: Reuters US Online Report Domestic News
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