FARMINGTON — A judge has tossed a lawsuit against the Davis School District accusing it of hiring and not properly supervising high school teacher Brianne Altice, who is serving a prison sentence for having a sexual relationship with a student.

An attorney for the school district argued Thursday that the district is immune from liability under state law that exempts state entities for physical and emotional harm suffered as the result of physical battery.

"I think it makes no difference to whether it was wanted or not. It was not consented to as a matter of law, and that makes it a battery," Joel Ferre of the Utah Attorney General's Office argued.

Lindy Hamilton, representing the teenager, countered that the damage was done not through the sexual acts the student and teacher engaged in, but through a relationship that the school district did not protect against.

"The harm is a mental and emotional act that was suffered," Hamilton told the judge. "He's forever branded as the kid who had sex with his teacher."

The plaintiff in the case is one of three young men who had sexual relationships with Altice, their Davis High School English teacher.

Altice pleaded guilty in April to three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, and was sentenced to three terms of one to 15 years in prison. She was ordered to serve two terms consecutively and one concurrently.

Altice had been facing four trials and 14 felony charges — including rape, forcible sodomy, forcible sexual abuse, unlawful sexual activity with a minor and dealing in materials harmful to a minor — stemming from sexual relationships with the three students who were 16 or 17 years old at the time.

Police say Altice befriended the boys while they were students, eventually progressing to three separate sexual relationships between Nov. 1, 2013, and Aug. 25, 2014, meeting the teens for sex at parks, in cars and at her home while her husband was away. She has since divorced. New charges were filed in January after Altice allegedly resumed her relationship with one of the students while she was out on bail.

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Prosecutors: Ex-teacher had sex with student after arrest

A former Utah high school teacher had sex with an underage student after she was arrested in October 2013 in another sex abuse case involving that boy and two others, prosecutors say.

The lawsuit, which sought at least $674,000 in damages, claimed the district should have done a better job screening prospective employees and providing better training. Hamilton indicated Thursday that the district was aware of a previous incident between Altice and a student but maintained her as an employee anyway.

"The district had knowledge, because of a prior situation she was involved in, that she had this propensity," Hamilton argued.

Ultimately, 2nd District Judge John Morris agreed that the damage the student suffered falls under immunities granted in the Governmental Immunity Act.

"Regardless of what they did, the relationship was primarily sexual and the conduct is battery under pretty clear case law," Morris said.

Hamilton said she intends to appeal the case.

"I think the recent case by the (Utah) Supreme Court in June of this year addresses the fact that the district has responsibility, and that's why we're appealing this," Hamilton said as she left the courtroom.

In that case, the Utah Supreme Court reinstated a lawsuit against the Utah Department of Transportation after a massive chasm was washed out on a state road in Duchesne County, causing an accident that killed 15-year-old Justine Barneck.

A lawsuit filed by a second victim of Altice was dismissed in June, with attorneys for the school district arguing in that case as well that the district was immune. That case claimed Altice's relationships with her students was known to other students and staff at the school and should have been detected and dealt with by administrators.

"The running joke among the students at DHS was, 'Who is Ms. Altice sleeping with now?'" the lawsuit stated.

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