The case of a former Turkey Creek Middle School teacher, Megan Connors, accused of having a sex with a 15-year-old student will not go to trial, reportedly taking a plea deal.
Connors, of Brandon, accepted the plea deal, receiving five years in Florida state prison, two years of community control (GPS monitoring), followed by 15 years’ probation.
Megan Connors was arrested and charged with sexual battery, lewd and lascivious battery and lewd conduct in February 2015.
Initially she rejected a plea deal for 10 years in prison and now faces life as prosecutors upped the charges.
Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Courtney Derry aggressively targeted Connors in the case, stating before the judge in court, that enhancement of the law regarding authority figures over students – raising it from a first degree felony to life felonies – probably added to Connors’ fear and the gravity of the case.
“You are aware of the possible consequences to a life felony if the jury is to find you guilty? You face up to life in prison on these charges, ” Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella asked Connors as the trial was being set.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Connors established a relationship with the teenager, who was a student in her classroom.
Deputies say the relationship turned physical with Connors having sex with the boy at the school during school hours and once in his bedroom. Police have details on that progression of their relationship from kissing to fondling to sex escapades at school and even details from the encounter at the boy’s home.
As part of the deal, Connors will also have to register as a sex offender.
Up to life in prison for an unforced relationship with a willing post-pubescent person easily old enough to be charged, prosecuted and sentenced as an adult?
5 year in prison and lifetime of crippling restrictions for that? All this in a country that has killed tens of thousands of kids all over the world and call them ‘collateral damage’?
What a colossal waste of resources. What a joke.
It’s statutory rape. We’ve agreed as a society a long time ago that minors cannot give consent. What the age of consent is, we can discuss about it, it does seem arbitrary country to country, and state to state.