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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge ordered a former high school teacher to jail Thursday while she awaits trial on new charges alleging sex with a third teenage boy.
Judge John Morris decided to revoke bail for 35-year-old Brianne Altice after hearing allegations that she had sex with the third teen and sent him a nude picture after her October 2013 arrest in connection with two other alleged victims, ages 16 and 17.
"Our concern really is this defendant so blatantly continued in this relationship with an underage boy," prosecutor Susan Hunt said.
Altice is now facing more than a dozen felony counts, including rape and sexual abuse, in two different cases. She has pleaded not guilty to the older charges. Altice looked out at supporters in the courtroom as she was led away in handcuffs.
Her lawyer, Ed Brass, argued there was no reason to revoke bail.
"She doesn't present a danger, and that young man is an adult now," Brass told the judge.
Morris disagreed, citing testimony from the former principal at Davis High School. Dee Burton said he warned Altice not to get too close to her students in August 2013, after he got an anonymous letter containing pictures of Altice on a blanket having a picnic with the third victim in the park. She told the principal he was having family problems and she was trying to help.
The teenager testified Thursday that their relationship turned sexual about a month after those pictures were taken. The two became friends after he had her as a teacher when he was a junior, he said, and he sometimes went to her classroom when he was cutting other classes.
He said the relationship became intimate during a 10-minute encounter in his car and progressed during lunches and afterschool, with some encounters ending because she had to pick up her children.
The relationship continued after her arrest and after he graduated, he testified.
Under questioning from prosecutors, he acknowledged that they had discussed the fact that he was underage.
Now 18, he testified Thursday that he was not happy about discussing the approximately yearlong sexual relationship with his former teacher.
"It's ridiculous and she doesn't deserve to be here," he said, later saying that he still has feelings for Altice. He glanced at her occasionally during his testimony, often answering prosecutors' questions with one-word answers.
His testimony came as part of a deal in the works with prosecutors after he was arrested on suspicion of witness tampering connected to messages he sent another alleged victim in the case.
Brass pointed out that the first encounter was the teen's idea and she was no longer his teacher. He asked for a rape count to be dismissed.
"If there is no position of special trust, there is no automatic lack of consent and the charge," he said. Morris denied the motion.
Contributing: Devon Dolan
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