Fresno teacher gets 1 year in jail for sex act with student
FRESNO, Calif. — A former Fresno middle school teacher convicted of performing oral sex on a 14-year-old student has been sentenced to a year in jail and four years of probation.
The Fresno Bee reports that 33-year-old Justine Karen Nelson had faced up to three years in prison for the crimes.
Her defense attorney asked for leniency during Thursday’s sentencing, arguing the eighth-grader pressured Nelson into giving him oral sex.
Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan disagreed, saying it was Nelson who preyed on and corrupted the student.
Nelson was convicted in April on the oral copulation charge but acquitted of the more serious charge of felony lewd or lascivious acts with a minor. Had she been convicted of that charge, she would have faced a mandatory prison term of up to eight years.
