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29 March 2024

Teacher jailed for sex with 5 students

Published
By AP

US: A former North Texas high school teacher was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home.
 
The Tarrant County jury decided on the sentence for Brittni Nicole Colleps, 28, of Arlington after nearly three hours of deliberation.

It took jurors less than an hour to find her guilty earlier in the day of 16 counts of having an inappropriate relationship between a student and teacher. The second-degree felony is punishable by two to 20 years in prison per count.
 
The former Kennedale High School English teacher had sex with the students at her home over two months in 2011, authorities said.
 
Colleps is married and has three children. She turned herself in after a cellphone video of one encounter that involved multiple students emerged. That video was shown at trial.
 
Three former students who testified Thursday said that they did not consider themselves victims and did not want to see their former English teacher prosecuted. The three were football and track athletes.
 
Arlington police Detective Jason Houston testified that charges were filed because "18 or not, it's a crime" for a teacher to have sex with her students.
 
Two former students told jurors their relationships with Colleps began with the exchange of text messages that quickly turned sexual.
 
A 19-year-old testified that he had gone to Colleps' home twice with friends and they all engaged in sexual conduct.
 
A former student who is now 20 testified that he engaged in group sex and recorded his last encounter on a cellphone. He said initially the students spoke of the importance of keeping their activities quiet because they didn't want their teacher to get in trouble.
 
The 20-year-old also said when school officials called him into the office to question him in May 2011, he denied the trysts at first because "I was trying to save her."
 
Colleps' husband was serving in the military overseas at the time of the encounters. Christopher Colleps said Friday that he is mad at his wife, but stands by her "because 'til death do us part means 'til death do us part."
 
He said putting her in jail would punish him and their children for something they had no control over.
 
Kennedale is a town of about 7,300 residents near Arlington, eight miles southeast of Fort Worth.

Man pushes naked girlfriend off balcony

US: A St. Paul man is accused of throwing his naked girlfriend off a second-floor balcony after an argument.
 
Prosecutors Monday charged 57-year-old Anthony Maynard Nelson with first- and third-degree assault.
 
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Nelson insisted that his girlfriend fell off the balcony and that he did nothing wrong.
 
Police responded Sunday to an apartment on a report of a woman beaten and thrown off a balcony.
 
According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police Nelson thought she had been unfaithful. The complaint says the woman went to the balcony and screamed for help, and Nelson pushed her off.
 
The 45-year-old woman landed on her back and head. Doctors operated on her back for eight hours.
 
Neighbors who witnessed the struggle say the couple were naked.

Man spent 2 days under woman's trailer

US: Police in Salem, N.H., say a man who did maintenance work on a woman's trailer is accused of cutting holes in a bathroom floor and installing baby monitors to secretly record her.
 
Police arrested 44-year-old Christian Hobbs of Orleans, Mass., on multiple charges Wednesday.
 
They said the woman noticed movement in the trailer's air duct and saw Hobbs looking up at her.

Police said Hobbs had sold the woman the trailer a couple of years ago. He did work on it two weeks ago.
 
An investigation showed baby monitors were hooked up in the bedroom and in a dryer duct. Police allege Hobbs was under the trailer for two days with food and other supplies, taping the woman and her toddler son.
 
It wasn't immediately known if Hobbs had a lawyer.

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