Former teacher sentenced for having sex with teenage boy

ST. ANTHONY — A 36-year-old former teacher was sentenced Thursday after admitting to sexually battering a teenage boy.

Senior District Judge Stephen Dunn sentenced Jessica Lawson to a minimum of two years and a maximum of 20 years in prison. She will be required to register as a sex offender and attend sex offender treatment in prison, and when she is released on parole.

Dunn also ordered a no-contact order for the victim for 20 years.

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Lawson initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony rape of a victim who is 16 or 17 years of age, felony delivery of a controlled substance, and misdemeanor dispensing alcohol to a minor.

As part of a plea agreement, Lawson pleaded guilty in August to two counts of felony sexual battery of a minor who is 16 or 17 years of age, and the Attorney General’s office dropped all other charges, along with a separate case where Lawson was charged with an infraction for permitting an unauthorized minor to drive.

Click here for more details about this case.

EastIdahoNews.com submitted an official request to the Fremont County Courthouse on Tuesday to have a camera in the hearing but Judge Dunn denied it and refused to allow a camera in the courtroom.

Sentencing

Dunn began the hearing by telling Lawson’s defense attorney, Allen Browning, and the Deputy Attorney General Madison Allen that they could keep their arguments short because he intended to accept the plea agreement.

“I know this is a serious matter. I’ve been doing this a long time and I take it seriously,” said Dunn. “I’ve reviewed every bit of this file in detail. I’ve read every letter, read everything there is about this case. I’ve been on it from day one…I see no reason why I would be inclined to reject this binding Rule 11 plea agreement.”

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Browning then gave a short statement to the court, stating that his client understood that she would be going to prison.

“She wishes to apologize to the victim,” said Browning. “She has agreed and understands that she will be going to prison. She understands that in the interest of justice, that is appropriate.”

Allen stated the facts of the case, including the hope that the sentence sentence would deter this kind of behavior in the future.

“Jessica Lawson, who was 36 years old at the time, had an unlawful sexual relationship with a 16-year-old minor male victim when she picked him up from his home secretly without his parents’ permission,” said Allen. “She took him to her house where the two began to drink alcohol and then they engaged in sex acts together.”

The victim’s father said his child was adopted only days before the crime came to light and the victim grew up in foster homes where he lacked parental figures to teach him right and wrong.

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“It takes a village to raise a young man, especially a young man that has been in and out of foster care, that has never known what it’s like to have a mom and a dad,” the father said. “My son is going to take a long time to heal and he doesn’t even know the wounds that he has yet. He’s not going to understand those wounds until he’s a parent and he’s sending his daughter or son…to the house of a parent that he trusts.”

The victim’s mother also spoke to the court saying community members have bullied her because of the case. She explained her son did not know how to differentiate between safe and unsafe people.

“We brought (the victim) in because he needed somebody, and he didn’t have anybody…It was pretty quick that we realized this is a really great kid, and he’s wonderful and he should be in our family,” said the mother. “He’s got a lot of problems because he didn’t have a mom and dad that taught him how to recognize safe people. And you took advantage of that…she knew she could get something from him.”

Lawson apologized to the victim and his family. She detailed a 15-year abusive relationship, which she credits as the “catalyst” for her crimes.

“I alone am responsible for my actions, but I believe (a prior) relationship was the catalyst that set me down the path to where I am today,” said Lawson. “I want to apologize to the victim and his family for any pain that I have caused. I want to apologize to the community and anyone I’ve let down.”

The victim’s parents stated they feel there was a double standard in the case and that Lawson may have gotten a harsher sentence if she was a man and the victim was a female. Dunn disagreed with the statement.

“This is probably the sixth time I’ve dealt with a case like this, where the defendant was a female teacher. Sometimes the victims are male, and sometimes they’re female,” said Dunn. “There isn’t a double standard. The standards are the same. A person underage does not have the legal ability to consent to this kind of behavior. The responsibility is all on the defendant.”

Dunn continued, saying there is no excuse for the crime and no excuse for bullying the victim’s family.

“If there have been people in your family, or supporters of yours that have said bad things, terrible things to the victim’s family, they should be ashamed of themselves,” said Dunn. “I understand you’ve been through some difficult times. There hasn’t been one of these cases where I haven’t had a female in front of me, a defendant who hasn’t told me a similar story, frankly, about usually an abusive marriage and low self-esteem.”