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BOUNTIFUL — Early this month, former Davis High teacher Brianne Altice and her attorneys asked a Utah judge to reduce or dismiss one rape charge filed against her because a student was no longer in her class when the two allegedly had sex.
But 2nd District Judge Thomas Kay denied the request Wednesday.
Defense attorneys are also questioning whether her comments to police during a search of her home are admissible in court because they interviewed her without a lawyer present, even though she inquired about getting one.
Altice, 35, was an English teacher when she allegedly had sexual relationships with three Davis High students, boys who were 16 and 17 at the time. She is also accused of having sex with a student while she was out on bail for earlier charges.
She now faces 14 felonies, including rape, forcible sodomy, forcible sexual abuse, unlawful sexual activity with a minor and dealing in materials harmful to a minor.
Defense attorneys said Altice was not in a position of trust with one of the students because she was not his teacher at the time the activity allegedly occurred during his senior year.
"There was no position of special trust by virtue of being a teacher," said attorney Ed Brass. "In addition to that, this was something that he engaged in of his own volition."
Prosecutors disagreed, however, saying that the intimate relationship between Altice and the student began much earlier while he confided in her about family problems during his junior year.
"I would argue that that position of special trust that the defendant established with the victim continued into that senior year," said deputy Davis County attorney Susan Hunt. "So even though the defendant wasn't the victim's teacher during the senior year, that position of special trust remained as the defendant allowed that relationship to intensify into a sexual relationship."
A judge will decide on March 16 whether certain interviews between Altice and police will be omitted during the trial because of how they were conducted.
