Blogs > Frye on the News

Keeping his eye on the news and offering commentaries and insights on what is happening in Oakland County, around the world, on the tube and in the news.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

High school librarian sent topless photos, arrested at sting, police say

Police in New York said they were waiting for a 33-year-old librarian who wanted sex from a 16-year-old male student when she showed up at his house, according to a report in the NYDailyNews.com.

And apparently she knew the trouble she was in because she burst out crying when she saw the awaiting officers, who had been alerted to the meeting by the boy, the report from the Daily News says.

It was May of 2012 when the evidence fell into investigators hands, including numerous topless photos of the librarian, Marisa Anton, as well as text messages detailing sexual situations she desired and later texts urging the boy to delete the messages and even the penal codes which she feared she had violated. She had been pressuring the boy into a sexual relationship, even though he reportedly had not wanted to, prompting him to go to police. They had him request a visit and he asked her to bring condoms.

Officers were waiting and arrested her. She should have known something was up... a 16 year old asking for condoms in a sudden change of heart? If she was really worried, she would have been suspicious.

The woman, of Yonkers and who worked at New Rochelle High School, has pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges and is to be sentenced to three years of probation later this month. She had faced up to seven years in prison on the initial charges. Because they never had sex, is this an adequate sentence?

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Friday, February 1, 2013

Georgia teacher accused of sex with six students; look back at some of Oakland's teacher cases

A teacher of freshmen students at a Georgia high school has been arrested and charged with sexual assault, accused of having sex with as many as seven students, several media outlets have reported.

Such stories have become fairly common as laws have changed to criminalize sex with younger people who have reached the age of consent yet but have a teacher-student, coach-player or boss-employee relationship. For instance, in Michigan, as with Georgia, the age of consent is 16, but it is now illegalf for people to have sex with those younger than 18 if they are a teacher, boss, coach or someone with an authority position over that teenager.

In Georgia this week, a 32-year-old math teacher and 10-year veteran of Charlton County High School, DaNita Wilson, was charged with seven counts of sexual assault, reports the NYDailyNews.com.

The math teacher has been suspended with pay and is free on bond. School leaders will seek to terminate her employment, reports WPTV.com.

The Huffington Post reports she could face up to 25 years in prison for the charges, but the maximum could be pushed up to 50 years because one of the seven students was underage, 15 years old, exacerbating the charges.

As with Michigan, the teacher-student relationship criminalizes the sex with students who are 16 or older. The relationships reportedly, in at least some cases, lasted more than a year. Wilson's arrest came after the school board received a tip about the alleged relationships, prompting an investigation. A school official escorted the teacher to state investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, giving her a letter informing her of the paid suspension.

In a CNN story, colleagues expressed surprise at the accuations, noting she'd never been disciplined before.

In Oakland County in recent years, several teachers and coaches have been accused and convicted of sexual misconduct charges related to relationships with students.

In Rochester Hills, an Adams High School softball coach, volunteer Thomas Powell, 59, was sentenced in January of 2012 to one year in jail on such charges involving two young women. When sentenced the then-18-year-old girl told the judge she still loved him and said she would wait for his release.

In Waterford Township, in 2009, the district saw two employees charged with criminal sexual conduct related to relationships with students. Both adults worked at Waterford Mott High School.

Amy Rita Ellsworth, then 38, was arrested, charged, and later pleaded to a slew of charges related to relationships with three male students, including first-degree criminal sexual conduct, the most serious such charge. She was sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison. The 5-to-30 year sentence of Ellsworth, a teacher assistant, was much more severe than the sentence of Brian Drake, then 41, a theatre coordinator at Waterford Mott who pleaded to reduced charges for a relationship involving touching with a young woman. He received probation, and his son later married the victim.

In Birmingham, a Seaholm High School swim coach was sentenced in 2007 to one-to-15 years in prison for a sexual relationship with a then-16-year-old female swimmer. Dennis Michael Carter, then 53, was sentenced to prison after the girl reported the two-year relationship.

These are just some of the cases we have had, but it is interesting that these ended with the women still jailed and the men getting smaller sentences. I don't, however, believe there's that strong of a gender bias, much of it involves whether and how the victim testifies and which judge the case is assigned to.

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Friday, October 28, 2011

What's going on in Ohio?


Don't mean to be the snooty neighbor to the north, but what in the Dickens is going on down south, south of the Michigan-Ohio border that is?

Ohio's news has been weird, disturbing and exceptionally negative lately.

First, there's the exotic animal escape, which is wrong in so many levels. 1. Having so many exotic and dangerous animals. 2. Committing suicide. 3. After having RELEASED the animals. 4. Shooting and killing so many wonders of nature.

Now, I'm not critical of the shooting and killing. It had to be done. But what was that nut thinking? Did he intend to free the animals to live free? Did he intend to have them nearly all killed? Did he intend to kill or terrify his neighbors? So destructive and wasteful. And now the wife wants the couple that survived???? What are they drinking in that state?

Second, there's the nearly naked lady drunk and running from the police. Real classy, Ohio. Our strippers can walk a straight line (generally) and know to wear a coat when driving.

Third, there's the sexed up teacher, convicted of having sex with multiple male students. We in Oakland County have seen this story plenty of times, about a half dozen just in the past year or so. Men, women. Drama teachers, coaches, regular teachers. We know that this happens. But our teachers don't plead insanity; they just cry before they're sent to prison. And this lady in Ohio got just four years for something like five boys, victims really, while some our's get the same for contact with one victim.

Fourth, the deer getting rowdy at a bar. Enough said. We shoot our deer; we don't over-serve them.

Fifth, Joe the Plumber. Psst. His name's not Joe; how you gonna know how to vote for him?

Sixth, Jim Tressel and the fact that people in Ohio don't see what was wrong. Hey, we've got Kwame Kilpatrick and now Wayne County government, but the residents love watching the corruption busts and prison sentences. We are never stunned to learn of corruption and we enjoy the perp walks. We don't cry about losing a corrupt leader and lament his departure.

You can't blame all of this on LeBron James leaving.

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