Jennifer Rice, Washington
Jennifer Leigh Rice,33-year-old fourth-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary School, was arrested back in August 2007 for allegedly kidnapping a 10-year-old boy for sex. Rice was first charged with first-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation, but the investigation revealed that the 10-year-old was not only young boy Rice had been having sexual realtions with. New charges were filed against Rice in Setptember 2007 and she faced six counts of first-degree child rape, four counts of first-degree child molestation and two counts of third-degree child rape involving two youths.
The first-degree child rape and child molestation charges pertain to the 10-year-old child she kidnapped. The third-degree child rape charge involve another boy, who is brother of the first victim, between 14 and 16 years of age, who Rice allegedly molested between July 10th and August 20th 2007.
In April 2009 a Pierce County judge Monday convicted Jennifer Rice of kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old boy she taught at Tacoma?s McKinley Elementary School.
Superior Court Judge D. Gary Steiner also found Rice, 33, guilty of raping the boy?s older brother and ruled one of her crimes was predatory, qualifying her for an extra-long prison sentence.
The former teacher faces more than 25 years in prison when sentenced June 5. Steiner ordered Rice, who?s been in jail since her arrest in summer 2007, remain there until sentencing.
The convictions followed a brief ?stipulated facts? trial. Prosecutors and Rice?s defense team agreed to a set of facts in the case, and Steiner reviewed them before making his decision. Rice agreed to the trial instead of a straight plea in order to preserve some of her appellate rights.
The arrangement was, in essence, a guilty plea by Rice. She admitted she had sexual intercourse with both boys on separate occasions ? the older brother was 15 at the time ? and that she kidnapped and molested the younger boy, according to court records.
Steiner convicted Rice of four crimes: first-degree kidnapping, first-degree child molestation and two counts of third-degree rape. Steiner found the child-molestation crime was a predatory offense because the victim was one of Rice?s students.
That designation ? required when a teacher is accused of certain sex crimes ? invokes stiff sentencing requirements: a minimum term of 25 years or the high end of the standard sentencing range, whichever is longer. In Rice?s case, the high end is 26 years, according to previously filed court documents.
Prosecutors contended in court documents that Rice began a sexual relationship with the 10-year-old boy that lasted from December 2006 to August 2007, when she sneaked him out of his home and drove him to Ellensburg where they had sex at a rest stop before she returned him home.
According to court records, the boys' father told investigators that Rice showered his younger son with attention until about July 2007, when she was told to stop coming to the house.
After her arrest, Rice said she'd had sex with the boy four or five times previously, including once when she sneaked into his house while his parents were asleep, according to a police affidavit.
Prosecutors also charged her with twice having sex with the boy?s older brother in July 2007.
Rice previously argued that the law that classifies some crimes as predatory is unconstitutional because it wrongly curtails the powers of the state?s prosecutors by restricting their discretion. Steiner rejected that argument in July 2008.
The News Tribune of Tacoma reported previously that Rice resigned from earlier jobs teaching Spanish at Spanaway Lake High in the suburban Bethel School District and as a second-grade teacher at Southworth Elementary in Yelm, between Tacoma and Olympia, both when her professional judgment was questioned after a year on the job.
Six months after taking the job at McKinley, Rice was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into reports of inappropriate socializing with students outside school hours, Tacoma schools spokeswoman Leanna Albrecht said.
Investigators found no evidence of sexual misconduct, but because of other unspecified findings her contract was allowed to lapse at the end of the year