A Bountiful Junior High math teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old former student has been in plea negotiations with prosecutors, but there has been "no real movement" toward resolving the case, the teacher's attorney said Thursday.
Defense attorney Rich Gallegos continues to say 40-year-old Valynne Bowers has been "over-charged" by prosecutors.
Bowers entered not-guilty pleas during a Thursday court hearing to five counts of rape and three counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies.
Second District Judge John Morris set a status hearing for Nov. 5. No trial dates have been set.
Gallegos told news reporters Bowers would have pleaded guilty "weeks ago" to lesser third-degree felony counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
Rape and forcible sodomy charges imply coercion, Gallegos said, but according to the boy's testimony during an August preliminary hearing, the boy "was the instigator."
As to the state's theory that the boy could not legally consent to have sex with Bowers because she occupied a position of special trust as a teacher, Gallegos denied Bowers used her position as a teacher to exploit the boy.
"A jury will probably decide that," Gallegos said.
According to preliminary hearing testimony, the boy initiated contact with Bowers in December 2008 by showing up at her after-school math study sessions.
He got her cell phone number by using her phone to send himself a message, then began texting and talking to her about his troubled past -- including being sexually molested as a younger child -- and other personal problems.
The communications became joking and teasing, then sexual.
The two first had phone sex, according to testimony. Then, on Jan. 2, they had intercourse.
A week or two later, the boy began giving Bowers guitar lessons at her home, where they had sex every Friday night until Feb. 27, according to testimony.
Prosecutors introduced a written statement by Bowers in which she said she "tried to be a strong shoulder [the boy] could lean on."
Bowers lamented, however, "I began to lean on him. I didn't realize how lonely and depressed I was ..."
Arguing against the existence of a teacher/student relationship, Gallegos noted that no sexual conduct occurred at school and that Bowers was not the boy's teacher at the time of the alleged crimes.
But Deputy Davis County Attorney Richard Larsen said Bowers acknowledged there were special aspects to the relationship.
Bowers wrote in her statement that the boy came to her because she was "a trusted adult." She also wrote: "I violated so much trust."
Bowers told police she tried to end the relationship, but the boy threatened to harm himself.
The relationship did end in early March when Linda Nef, 46, another Bountiful Junior High teacher who had a sexual relationship with the same boy when he was 13 years old, went to police and told them about herself and Bowers.
Nef, who taught Utah social studies and was a cheerleading adviser, was sentenced in July to prison for three years to life.
Nef had pleaded guilty to one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, admitting she had a sexual relationship with the boy from Jan. 1, 2008, through Feb. 14, 2008.
