Tenn. Teacher Pleads No Contest in Sex Case
MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. — A former elementary school teacher pleaded no
contest to having sex with one of her students, a 13-year-old boy,
and has been sentenced to nine months in jail.
Pamela Rogers Turner (search), 28, entered the plea Thursday,
allowing her to avoid a trial on multiple charges of sexual battery
and statutory rape.
Turner, who had taught physical education and coached girls
basketball for two years at Centertown Elementary, had trouble
speaking as she tried to enter her plea. She was accused of having
sex with the boy at his home and at school between November and
January.
"I can't even talk," she told Circuit Court Judge Bart
Stanley.
After Turner is released from jail, she will be on supervised
probation for the rest of an eight-year suspended sentence. The
judge also ordered her to surrender her teaching certificate and
said she would be registered as a child sex offender. The sentence
prohibits her from profiting from the case and does not allow
interviews.
District Attorney Dale Potter has said Turner lived at the boy's
house "for a brief period of time when she was moving from
residence to residence."
The mother of the teenager in the case previously described Turner
as a family friend and said she hoped there would not be a trial.
Potter said Thursday that was part of the reason for the plea
agreement.
Turner was a college homecoming queen and basketball player who
once appeared as a bikini-clad promoter for a professional
wrestling match. Her husband, Chris Turner, filed for divorce in
January, at the same time she was indicted.
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