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PROVO — A former teacher at Provo’s Centennial Middle School has been ordered to 45 days in jail and two years of probation after he admitted to providing alcohol to a 16-year old girl and pleaded no contest to trying to send her pictures of nude women.
Fourth District Judge Darold McDade on Monday ordered Jefferson Hendricks Hall, 39, of American Fork, to report to the Utah County Jail to begin his sentence by Dec. 6
As part of a plea bargain with prosecutors, Hall pleaded no contest to reduced charges of attempting to deal in harmful material to a minor, a class A misdemeanor; and providing alcohol to a minor, a class A misdemeanor. In exchange, another harmful materials charge was dismissed.
The investigation began when a 16-year-old girl reported to police that Hall had been messaging her outside of school, including about tattoos “and sex (but not with each other),” according to charging documents.
Hall sent her photos of nude women with tattoos and asked her what she thought about the tattoos, police said. The girl also told police she was at Hall’s home once and he gave her alcohol, an affidavit filed in court states.
Hall had been scheduled to become a teacher at Timpview High School at the time of his arrest in July but is not listed on that school’s online teacher roster.
In letters to the court ahead of his sentencing, his stepfather, a former colleague and a law professor at the University of Utah urged leniency.
The law professor said Hall had taught her child and called him an “excellent teacher” who was always appropriate and professional. When she spoke with Hall about his criminal case, her letter says, “he took responsibility for his actions and freely admitted his mistakes.”
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Utah County teacher arrested, accused of sending nude pics to teen girl
A man who taught in a Provo middle school last year and was scheduled to teach at Timpview High this coming school year has been arrested and accused of sending nude photographs to a teenage girl. (Photo: Alex Staroseltsev, Shutterstock.)
