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Amber Jennings
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September 27, 2005
Jennings pleads guilty
2 years’ probation on obscenity
charge
By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
STAFF
WORCESTER— Amber S. Jennings, 32, a
former teacher at Shepherd Hill Regional High School in Dudley,
pleaded guilty yesterday to sending obscene photos, videos and
electronic messages to a 16-year-old male student with whom she was
having a sexual relationship.
Under an agreement with
prosecutors, the Sturbridge resident will undergo two years of
supervised probation for the single charge of disseminating harmful
materials to a minor. She could have been sentenced to five years in
jail.
The materials included images of Ms.
Jennings revealing her breasts and vagina, according to Assistant
District Attorney Joseph J. Reilly III.
Ms. Jennings, a mother of two young
girls, also was ordered to surrender her teaching license and stay
away from the victim, now 18.
Two other charges she originally
faced — posing a minor in a state of nudity and depicting a minor in
sexual conduct — will be dropped.
Ms. Jennings could also be required
to register as a sex offender for the next 20 years. Superior Court
Judge Kenneth J. Fishman, who earlier this month denied a motion to
dismiss charges, will rule within two weeks on a new motion from Ms.
Jennings’ lawyer, Peter L. Ettenberg, that would allow her to not
register as a sex offender.
The prosecution is not contesting
the defense move.
However, in court yesterday, the
mother of the victim made an emotional plea for Ms. Jennings to be
required to report to the state’s Sexual Offender Registry Board.
“She seized his manhood. She took
it away from him,” she said from the witness stand. “This teacher,
Amber Jennings, totally destroyed our life, my son’s life.
“This is an abuser who needs to
know she’d done something wrong,” the victim’s mother continued. “She
could do it again.”
The mother also charged that Ms.
Jennings abused her position as a teacher and got off easy compared to
the punishment a man in her position would have received.
While the mother said she and other
family members opposed the plea agreement, Mr. Reilly said the victim,
who did not attend the court session, had approved of the deal.
“He wishes the matter to be
resolved,” Mr. Reilly said.
Sean M. Gilrein, superintendent of
the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District, noted that Ms. Jennings
has not worked as a teacher in the school system since she was first
charged in summer 2004, and went on unpaid leave after she was
indicted last February.
“Given the outcome of the criminal
matter, the school district is in the process of terminating Ms.
Jennings formally,” Mr. Gilrein said. “We’re certainly pleased that
the criminal proceedings are over and we can all move forward in a
positive fashion.”
The defendant, her blond hair
pulled back, was dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt, khaki slacks
and black platform shoes.
Her husband, Richard G. Jennings,
sat in the courtroom.
Ms. Jennings gave mostly
single-word answers to the judge signifying that she understood and
agreed with the arrangement.
When Judge Fishman explained the
details of registering with the sex offender registry, she lost her
composure and briefly broke out in tears.
Mr. Ettenberg painted the
year-and-a-half relationship between Ms. Jennings and the student as
consensual, noting that she was not his teacher when they began to
have sex.
The teacher and student first met
during the 2002-03 school year when he was a freshman and Ms. Jennings
was his English teacher.
The next school year, they began to
talk together in person and by phone and send e-mails and other
messages to each other, Mr. Reilly said. Starting in November 2003,
they started to have sexual intercourse in various places in Dudley,
Charlton and Oxford, including Ms. Jennings’ car, her house and his
parents’ house.
At one point, the teenager asked
Ms. Jennings to use a digital videorecorder while they had sex, and
she agreed, Mr. Reilly said.
Eventually, the
victim’s sister noticed that her brother was communicating frequently
with the same computer screen name that Ms. Jennings used —
“Redsox6606.”
She told their
mother, who called Ms. Jennings. Ms. Jennings immediately denied the
affair then admitted it, Mr. Reilly said. The victim’s mother reported
the relationship to the Dudley police July 12, 2004.
Police
confiscated both computers. State forensic experts found the photo and
video images and messages on the computers.
While Ms.
Jennings’ head was not visible on the videos showing her undressed, a
tattoo proves that it was her, Mr. Reilly said.
Ms. Jennings’
lawyer, arguing yesterday for his client to be relieved of the
responsibility of registering as a sex offender, said a detailed
psychological assessment shows that “her risk for future sexual
violence is very low, if not nil.”
“My client has
absolutely no history,” he said. “What occurred between these two
people is an extraordinary lapse of judgment.
“She did not
stalk him. She did not seek him out in any kind of violent way,” Mr.
Ettenberg added. “She was an outstanding teacher, dedicated to her
profession, dedicated to her students.”
Judge Fishman
rebuked Mr. Ettenberg when the defense lawyer argued that Ms.
Jennings’ position as a teacher was irrelevant because the
relationship could have started had the two been co-workers or in any
other setting.
“Teachers have a
very special position in our society that makes the comparison to a
co-employee inappropriate,” the judge said.
Outside the
courtroom, the teenager’s grandparents expressed anger at the plea
agreement. They said it let Ms. Jennings off the hook.
“She should be in
jail,” said the victim’s grandfather.
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