| The Hunter of Jahanna |
11-04-2002 06:35 PM |
Quote:
Nov. 2, 2002, 4:08PM
Woman charged in sexual assault
Teacher may be pregnant by boy, 13
By RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
An instructor at a Pasadena Christian school was charged with aggravated sexual assault Friday and is believed to be pregnant after having an affair with a 13-year-old student.
Lisa Zuniga, 27, a supervisor at Victory Academy, was being held in lieu of a $30,000 bond. She appears to be pregnant but denies that she is, Pasadena police Sgt. Tim Moon said.
Investigators will have to get warrants to conduct tests to determine whether Zuniga is pregnant and, if she is, whether the boy is the father, Moon said.
But even if she is not pregnant, he said, the charge will remain because the boy has given a videotaped statement acknowledging a sexual relationship that lasted from April to October.
"You have enough evidence besides the pregnancy that this incident did occur," Moon said. "The 13-year-old is a child; he cannot give consent. He was seduced by this older woman. She took advantage of him."
The boy, now 14, has withdrawn from the Victory Academy church and school and now lives with relatives in Oklahoma, Moon said.
The teen told police that he and Zuniga had been meeting at her apartment after school. The small apartment at 712 Llano is on the property that includes the church and school, Moon said.
Zuniga's attorney, Arthur Porras, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Moon said Zuniga, who has been a member of the church since age 8, had been employed at the school for two years and worked as a supervisor of children. He was not sure about her exact duties but said she served as "some type of instructor" and assisted in teaching.
Messages left at the Victory Academy office were not returned Friday.
The church pastor, who was not identified, had sought out the youth after hearing that Zuniga was pregnant because he felt that the boy had been spending a lot of time with her, Moon said.
"He confronted the little boy, and the boy confirmed that he had been having sexual intercourse with Ms. Zuniga and that he was the father," the sergeant said.
Zuniga was fired, Moon said, and the pastor contacted Houston police on Oct. 14 because the boy lived in Houston.
"The (boy's) parents were very shocked by this, as was the pastor," he said.
Houston police interviewed the boy, who had been a member of the church since birth, but turned the case over to Pasadena police on Oct. 15 after concluding that the offense took place in Pasadena.
Moon said officers interviewed the boy by telephone before filing charges. Zuniga was arrested Friday morning at a relative's home in Houston but has not been questioned.
The boy had not reported the relationship to anyone until the pastor confronted him, Moon said. He said police will investigate whether Zuniga had relationships with any others.
Although far more rare than cases involving male teachers and female students, such incidents have led to criminal charges from time to time across the nation, including the Houston area.
The most widely publicized case involved Mary Kay Letourneau, a Seattle grade-school teacher whose affair with a student produced two children. Letourneau was a married mother of four and a highly respected teacher when she began the affair in 1996, when the boy was 12 and she was 34.
Letourneau pleaded guilty to child rape and went to jail, then was released on condition that she stay away from the boy. She was sentenced in 1998 to more than seven years in prison after resuming the affair and becoming pregnant again.
In a 1998 case in Fort Bend County, Susan Charmaine Franklin, a Houston school district elementary teacher, was sentenced to eight years' deferred adjudication after admitting she had had an affair with her son's 15-year-old friend.
Franklin, 43, halted her trial and pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child. The judge, who ordered her to apologize to the boy in court, remarked that her case had "eerie parallels" to the Letourneau case.
Although sexual relationships between older women and teenage boys often don't carry the social stigma of those between girls and older men, psychologists say boys still can suffer emotional trauma.
"This is extremely shocking," Moon said of the Pasadena case. "Any time that an adult is taking advantage of a 13-year-old child, it's shocking."
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Why is it that the church will hide Priests who molest little boys but wont hide women who do the same thing?? Why is it that when a priest is accused of child molesting the just ship him to a new parish full of victims but the woman in this article got turned in?? How come according to the news, the church is still arguing against a zero tolerance policy for child molesting priests??
I am not trying to justify what this women did, but when I see in the news that priests have molested dozens of kids and just get shipped out of the hot zone I get a little pissed at the hipocracy. |
