Published Thursday | March 6, 2008
Atty: Ex-Teacher Would Take Plea Deal
By OSKAR GARCIA Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The lawyer for a female teacher accused of having sex with a student and fleeing to Mexico with him said Thursday that his client would be willing to plead guilty to state charges of statutory rape if federal charges against her were dropped.

James Martin Davis, who represents 26-year-old Kelsey Peterson, said Thursday in U.S. District Court that the penalty for federal charges of crossing a border to have sex with a minor - 10 years to life in prison - is too severe.

"The stickler in this case is that the prosecutors want so much time," Davis told reporters after a brief hearing where a federal judge set a pretrial conference for April 18.

In addition to the federal charges, state charges include a kidnapping charge that could carry a life sentence and two first-degree sexual assault charges that were added after Peterson pleaded not guilty in federal court.

Sentences in other high profile cases where female teachers have admitted having sex with students have been less severe.

Debra Lafave, the former Florida middle school teacher who admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old male student in her classroom and her home in 2004, pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious battery and got house arrest and probation.

Mary Kay Letourneau, who had sex with a 12-year-old boy she had known since second grade and later gave birth to two of his children, served 7 1/2 years in prison for rape. She married him after getting out of prison.

Colorado high school teacher Carrie McCandless got 45 days behind bars for unlawful sexual contact with a 17-year-old male student.

Prosecutors in the Peterson case want her to do more time than any other teacher who has committed similar offenses, Davis said.

U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher said prosecutors don't make laws, but Congress enacts laws and determines appropriate penalty ranges.

"We are not opposed to having conversations to get this thing resolved with an appropriate plea, but it will be one that we are satisfied serves the ends of justice," Stecher said Thursday.

Stecher said the negotiations have and will continue to include the prosecutor for the state case in Lexington.

Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said Peterson's case has factors that make it unlike other sexual assault cases that deserve to be considered.

"This case is unique I think," Waterman said. "It merits a look that's not going to be lumping it together with other ... first degree assault cases."

The Associated Press previously named the boy as police searched for him but stopped using his name in reports after authorities charged Peterson with a sex crime. He was an illegal immigrant in the United States when he left with Peterson, but is back in Nebraska temporarily after he was granted humanitarian parole by the Department of Homeland Security.

Peterson, who was fired from her job as a middle school teacher and basketball coach, said in December that she left with the boy after school officials started investigating their relationship. She hoped rumors about them would blow over.
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U.S. District Court, Nebraska: http://www.ned.uscourts.gov/

Dawson County: http://www.dawsoncountyne.net/