Ex-teacher guilty on state sex charges

LEXINGTON – Kelsey Peterson, the Lexington teacher who had an affair with a sixth-grade student before fleeing with him to Mexico, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a minor, Monday in Dawson County District Court.

Both counts are Class II felonies.

Peterson entered the plea after a deal with Dawson County Attorney Liz Waterman to drop the charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor, and felony child abuse.

“They were lesser counts and she agreed to plea to the two that carried a one to 50 in an effort to get a just result,” Waterman said when asked about the plea agreement. “The victim and his representative are in agreement with that also.

“One to 50 is the range, and I’ve never seen anyone get the maximum on this type of crime,” she said. “I will argue that it ought to be treated with the level of seriousness that it should.”

A charge of felony kidnapping had been dropped at an earlier hearing.

District Judge Jim Doyle informed Peterson that she was giving up her right to a trial by jury by pleading guilty. After acknowledging her guilt Peterson broke down into tears as she left the courtroom in an orange jail jumpsuit.

A handful of Peterson’s relatives quietly watched the 15-minute hearing. Her attorney, James Martin Davis of Omaha, was at Peterson’s side as she entered her plea. Her trial was scheduled to start Jan. 13.

Sentencing was set for March 6. She is being held in the Dawson County Jail.

Waterman said she felt justice had been served considering the severity of the case.

“If I didn’t feel that way I would have handled it differently,” she said. “The objective is to always seek justice in matters of a criminal nature, and by judging that as a prosecutor, I believe that the end result, in terms of what she has pleaded guilty to, will obtain the level of justice we desire.”

Some have showed sympathy for Peterson who has already been sentenced in Federal court, but Waterman said the state case was necessary because of what had happened in the State of Nebraska.

“In my opinion it was a necessary case to pursue,” Waterman continued. “The Federal case, focused primarily on the flight portion of the crime that occurred beginning on Oct. 26 and 27, and we have dealt with in addition to that, in the state case, the long-running period of time in which this young boy was sexually abused by the defendant. In terms of fairness, two counts versus the numbers she herself had admitted to seemed to be a fair result for both sides.”

The 26-year-old Peterson faces two consecutive 50-year prison terms and will have to register as a sex offender.

Peterson was accused of having a sexual relationship with Fernando Rodriguez beginning in June 2006, when he was 12 years old and a student at Lexington Middle School where Peterson was his sixth-grade math teacher.

When school officials discovered the relationship in October 2007, the pair fled to Mexico on or about Oct. 26, leading authorities on a weeklong search.

In an interview with the Kearney Hub in November, Peterson said she understood that there would be penalties for her actions.

“I totally am OK with taking responsibility for my actions,” she said. “I do believe that I deserve some kind of punishment.

“I am so not excusing what I’ve done,” she said. “I crossed the line as a teacher, and I know that.”

 

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