Font ResizeFarmington » Saying plea negotiations have broken down, the attorney for a Bountiful Junior High math teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old former student on Thursday asked for a trial date.
Valynne Bowers, 40, is charged in 2nd District Court with five counts of rape and three counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies punishable by up to life in prison.
Judge John Morris scheduled a three-day jury trial to begin March 8.
Defense attorney Rich Gallegos told reporters he will ask the jury to find Bowers guilty of the lesser crime of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a third-degree felony. Gallegos said the issue for the jury will be whether Bowers, as a teacher, held a position of special trust in relation to the boy, which would make more severe penalties a possibility.
Gallegos has previously argued against the existence of any teacher/student relationship, noting that no sexual conduct occurred at school and that Bowers was not the boy's teacher at the time of the alleged crimes.
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 turned sexual; the two engaged in phone sex, according to testimony, and had actual intercourse on Jan. 2. 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.
In early March, Linda Nef, 46, another Bountiful Junior High teacher, went to police and told them she had a sexual relationship with the same boy when he was 13 years old. Nef also told police about Bowers.
Nef, who taught Utah social studies, was sentenced in July to prison for three years to life. She had pleaded guilty to one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, admitting she had sex with the boy from Jan. 1, 2008, through Feb. 14, 2008.
