[S]T. ALBANS – A former paraeducator in Highgate is heading to jail on Christmas after reaching a plea deal to charges she sent explicit photos of herself to a fourth-grade student as well as exposed her breast to the child in person.
Josie Spears, 35, pleaded guilty this week in Franklin County criminal court to two charges of lewd and lascivious conduct, one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, two counts of prohibited conduct, and one charge of violating the conditions of her release, court records stated.
The three lewd charges are felonies, while the other three counts are misdemeanors.
She was sentenced as part of the plea deal to two years and 30 days to 15 years in jail, all suspended but 30 days. She is expected to turn herself into the state Department of Corrections on Christmas Day to begin serving the 30-day sentence, her attorney said Friday.
Spears also must serve six months of home confinement, according to court records.
Other sex charges that had been brought against her were dismissed as part of the plea agreement approved by Judge A. Gregory Rainville this week.
Franklin County State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler, the prosecutor in the case, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Spears has to register as a sex offender until at least 2035, Jessica Burke, her attorney, said Friday, and she will also be on probation until at least 2025.
The terms of her probation include that she stay 300 feet away from the boy, his family, and their residence, court records stated.
Also, court records stated, she “shall not” work or volunteer for any business or organization that “primarily provides services to children under the age of 18.”
In addition, she can’t own or possess a computer at her home, and may not access the internet at work, or anywhere else, unless approved in advance in writing by her probation officer, according to court filings.
“We think this is a resolution that fairly and accurately takes into account what has occurred,” Burke said.
Police began investigating the case on Feb. 21, 2017, when the fourth-grade student, a boy, was 9 years old, according to court records. Spears was arrested about a week later, court records stated.
The boy was a student at the Highgate school where Spears had worked as a paraeducator prior to the allegations brought against her in 2017.
The lewd and prohibited conduct charges she pleaded guilty to involved explicit photos the boy told authorities Spears had sent to him, as well as exposing her breast to him in person.
The St. Albans Messenger reported that a statement from the boy’s mother read in court this week talked about how her son now suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and that child has been taken out of the school and the family has since moved away.
“I trusted her and she betrayed that trust I had given to her,” the mother wrote in her statement, the newspaper reported.
