Kelsey Peterson Found Guilty in Student Sex Scandal

A former teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to fleeing to Mexico with a 13-year-old student so she could have sex with him. Her plea was part of a deal to ensure she’ll spend less than a decade in federal prison.Kelsey Peterson, 26, cried in court and shook her head when the prosecutor said she started having sex with the boy when he was 12 years old and a student at Lexington Middle School, where she taught.

But the former math teacher pleaded guilty to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines to have sex, and avoided a similar charge that would have carried a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence.The plea agreement calls for a sentence of at least 70 months in prison, up to a maximum of 87 months. The judge could decide on a different sentence, but that would give Peterson the right to change her plea, said federal prosecutor Jan Sharp. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for September.

Her family burst out of the court room Wednesday shouting at reporters, telling them to “ask (the victim) how old he is,” and saying Peterson is being unjustly accused.Peterson’s attorney, James Martin Davis, has publicly questioned the boy’s birth certificate. Davis said the boy was likely at least 16, and that he was the aggressor.Amy Peck, an attorney for the boy and his family, said that suggestion was disgusting.“He was a 12-year-old boy and the defendant knew it,” Peck said Wednesday. “The result of this lower plea could have been obtained without playing to every racial stereotype that there is.”