Top Story: GUILTY VERDICTA jury found Severine Wamala, 45, guilty of 11 counts of aggravated sexual assault. He was the Lowell High School Math Department Chairman who was a noted chess champion. He also sexually abused a 16-year-old student. (Massachusetts)
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SENTENCED for murder
John Racz, 61, a retired Compton Unified School teacher, was sentenced for the 1991 murder of his wife. Her body was never found, but the jury had no trouble believing him guilty. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. (California)
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SENTENCED - not nearly long enough
In one of those future movie-of the-week stories, Robert Dulin, 49, pleaded no contest to five counts of second-degree sexual assault, two counts of breach of peace and one count of criminal violation of the protective order for a three-year sexual relationship with a student that began when she was 16. He was, in Hollywood fashion, sentenced to 7 years, suspended after 18 months. He has to register as a sex offender for 10 years. (Connecticut)
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SENTENCED - for theft
Charles Hawkins, 44, school board chairman in Derry, New Hampshire, was sentenced to a year in jail - not prison - for stealing thousands of dollars from his Salem employer. He has to repay $60,000, some of which he spent on family trips, home improvements and online pornography. He's getting treatment for pornography and computer sex addiction. That must be reassuring for parents. (New Hampshire)
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SENTENCED - for child abuse
A Jacksonville, Arkansas elementary school teacher was sentenced to three years in prison after a jury found her guilty of two counts of second degree battery for abusing her six-year-old son. Amy Hilbun, 25, might have company soon. Another teacher, Stephen Rose, 35, was charged with felony battery in the same case and is scheduled for an Oct 9 jury trial.
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ALMOST SENTENCED - sex with four boys, ages 13-15
Cathy Heminghaus, 47, - yes the age is 47 -- pleaded no contest to performing oral sex on four boys. At the sentencing, however, the judge removed himself when a retired judge and a good friend wrote to him and asked him not to sentence Heminghaus to jail. The presiding judge wisely recused himself. (St. Louis, Missouri)
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FUGITIVE TEACHER
Well, actually two of them. Andrew Foster, 27, described as a "popular (Lantana, Florida) Santaluces High School drama teacher" teacher, was warned by a student one week into the school year that he was about to be nabbed. He's been missing every since. He's accused of having sex with two of his 17-year-old students, impregnating one of them and then taking her to a clinic for an abortion. Turns out the school investigated him earlier, but a student denied it, so they dropped their strenuous efforts. And then there was that pesky problem in South Bend, Indiana.
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The second fugitive is Bobby Kennedy, 28, who took a powder with the help of his mother, the principal of the charter school where he worked. She's still the principal of the Arizona charter school despite a guilty plea last year to a reduced charge of failing to report neglect of a minor. She was sentenced to two years probation, a suspended 90-day jail sentence and a $2,500 fine following her plea deal.
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SCHOOL BOARD WATCH
It isn't nepotism. That's the legal opinion of the school system attorney. At least it isn't against the law for 33 employees to have relatives working for the school, the school board chairman's wife working for the schools and the Director of Schools wife working for the schools. (Cleveland, Tennessee) If they want to see real nepotism, check out any Alabama school.
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ARRESTED - criminal sexual assault of an eighth grader
Third grade teacher Donald Turner, 38, was arrested, accused of having with for sex with a 14-year-old girl. (Chicago, Illinois)
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ARRESTED - sex with male student
Michael Smith, 51, a teacher's aide in Pemiscot County, Missouri, was arrested and faces charges of statutory sodomy, a class C felony and one count of deviate sexual assault a class C felony. Police say Smith allegedly performed sex acts with at least one male student at his residence. According to the sheriff's department, students were "compensated" at times for those acts.
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LEGAL MANEUVERING
Defense attorneys want a new trial or a new sentence for Jonathan Johnson, a coach who was convicted of 74 counts involving lewd acts and sexual intercourse with 14 underage girls, six of them under age 14 between 2000 and 2002. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison and 24 concurrent life terms for offenses committed against girls under age 14.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
From the judge who sentenced Barry Ostrander to 15 years in prison for child pornography. Read the whole thing. We need more judges who are disgusted with people who buy child pornography and plant cameras in the bathroom.
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