Teacher who was caught having sex with 14-year-old in classroom released from prison after a year
A former Ohio middle school teacher who was found guilty of multiple offenses after she was caught having sex with a 14-year-old student inside a locked prison has been released from prison after serving a year behind bars.
According to the Dayton Daily News, 33-year-old Jessica Langford walked free after she completed her one-year sentence in the Ohio Reformatory for Women with no misconduct reports.
Formerly a math teacher at Miamisburg Middle School, Langford, of Centerville, was having sex with the victim in the locked classroom on the last day of school in May 2017 when they were interrupted and caught by the school's principal.
The 14-year-old kept silent on the affair for a year before coming clean to his father, who is a police officer.
Langford was subsequently arrested and charged with six counts of sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
The teen would go on to testify during her trial, and told the jury he did not speak sooner because he didn't want to throw Langford "under the bus."
He said she had told him to hide, dummy up, and "stick to the story" when the principal intervened.
He said she brought doughnuts for him to eat before they started to kiss, have oral sex, and then intercourse in the classroom. "We started kissing and it escalated from there," he revealed, adding, "It felt uncomfortable. I thought it was wrong."
The jury of eight men and six women eventually convicted her of three counts of sexual battery and unlawful conduct, and she was sentenced to one year in prison and five years of probation.
She had begged for leniency at the time, pointing to how she had a young daughter and an ailing mother to care for, and repeated the claims as she twice sought early release in August and December.
Prosecutors fought the plea, stating that the "letter of apology" she read out in court during her sentencing was amongst the numerous opportunities she had to take responsibility for her actions.
Her release this month comes after the completion of her one-year sentence in which she received no conduct reports, disciplinary actions which document an inmate’s negative behavior, said Sara French, deputy communication chief for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Langford has to now register as a tier III sex offender, the state's most serious classification. Commonly designed for rapists and sexual batters, it will require her to register her address and employment status with authorities in the county she resides in every 90 days for the rest of her life.
She will still also have to serve five years of probation.