Female Teacher Who Had Sex With 14-Year-Old Student, Jailed For 3 Years.

The lawyers of a teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14 year old student have successfully reduced her sentence to just three years – having previously argued in court the victim was a “willing participant” to the sexual assaults.

Stephanie Peterson, 27, admitted she had sex with an eighth-grader in her car twice, as well as performing oral sex on him on multiple occasions.
Peterson also admitted to sending the boy racy photos and messages during the illegal interactions between the pair, which happened between November 2017 and January.
In court, she pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious battery sex act with a child and electronic transmission of material harmful to minors.
But yesterday the former New Smyrna Bead Middle School teacher from Florida was sentenced to just three years in prison, after her defence lawyers successful argued her case for a more lenient sentence.
Initially, the shamed teacher faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but a plea deal had reduced that to projection to between five and 10.
Ahead of her sentencing hearing on December 19, defence attorney William Hathaway said she deserved less than the projected five year minimum.
Revealed in court documents obtained by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, one of the reasons put forward by the defence to mitigate her sentence, was that her teenage victim was a “willing participant” to the sexual assaults.

                                                 Stephanie Petersonjustinsimeon newsblogspot.com

Her lawyers, in a motion filed to the court for a lesser sentence, also claimed Peterson had already lost her teaching career and suffered from bi-polar disorder.
Yesterday, considering her sentence, Judge Raul Zambrano cited Peterson’s bout with mental illness and her struggle with bipolar.
Peterson got to know the victim after lending him her phone to check his Instagram account last November. She later sent him a message and the pair continued to communicate from there. The messages began to escalate after Peterson sent the teen nude pictures, including one from inside a shower.
She later told the victim she loved him. Authorities were alerted to the wrongdoings after the victim’s mother found out about their relationship and raised the alarm.