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The state's highest court is now considering whether a middle school lunch lady accused of having sex with a teen boy should be allowed to waive her right to a jury trial and, despite protest from prosecutors, have her case heard by a judge.
In arguments Tuesday before the Utah Supreme Court, the attorney for Jamie Lynn Greenwood said the case had received too much publicity to find a panel of impartial jurors.
Attorney Scott Wiggins also said the case posed legal questions so complicated that a judge would need to hear the case.
In questioning Wiggins, however, the justices seemed to disagree.
"On the continuum of complexity, I don't think it rates that high," Justice Matthew Durrant said.
Justice Thomas Lee said he believed siding with Greenwood would set a precedent for all sex crime cases.
Arguing for the state, Assistant Attorney General Christine Soltis said jurors were never questioned, nor was a change of venue requested, before 3rd District Judge Robert Adkins sided with Greenwood's request on the eve of trial in August 2010.
Prosecutors objected at that time on the grounds that Utah rules require all felony cases to be heard by a jury unless prosecutors and a judge consent to a bench trial.
Soltis said the law would allow a waiver without the consent of prosecutors if such a "poisonous atmosphere" existed that a jury could not possibly be empaneled.
"No decision has ever found such circumstances to exist, and they don't exist in this case," Soltis said.
The court took the matter under advisement and will issue a ruling at a later date.
Greenwood, 43, was a cafeteria supervisor at Eastmont Middle School in Sandy until her resignation in March 2010.
During a 2010 preliminary hearing, the alleged victim, a friend of Greenwood's son, testified that his relationship with the woman began when he was 14 and ended when he was 15.
During that time, Greenwood bought him gifts and demanded sexual favors in return, the teen testified.