Ashley Leigh Lewis Weber, a 31-year-old former Virginia high school history teacher, has pleaded guilty to having sex with a 16-year-old student.
Weber, 31, admitted to two counts of having consensual sex with an unidentified minor at least 15-years-old. Both counts hold year-long prison sentences, however, Judge Margaret Deglau, the presiding judge, suspended one of the sentences.
Furthermore, Weber, a married Henrico, Virginia woman who taught at Freeman High School teacher, was also charged with using a communication device to propose sex, but that was dropped due to her pleading guilty to the other charges.
via Richmond Times-Dispatch:
She was sentenced to 12 months in jail for each of the two misdemeanors, but a judge suspended all of the jail time for one of those counts. That leaves a 12-month sentence, but prosecutors expect she will ultimately serve about half of that time because defendants in misdemeanor cases often serve 50 percent of their sentence.
Stacey T. Davenport, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said Weber met the victim during the 2015-16 school year. At some point during the summer of 2016, Weber took the boy to her parents’ home in Henrico, where they had sex, Davenport said. At the time, Weber was 30 and the boy was 15, the prosecutor said.
Weber’s pleas on the charges were part of an agreement with prosecutors. A felony charge accusing Weber of using a communications device to propose a sex act with a minor was withdrawn. Prosecutors have collected a “large volume” of communications between Weber and the boy but ultimately felt they did not have the evidence they needed to prove that specific charge, Davenport said during the hearing.
Weber is expected to serve six months in prison. She is not allowed to have any contact with the boy and was taken into custody following her court appearance.
According to the Times-Dispatch, Andy Jenks, a spokesman for Henrico Public Schools, said Weber no longer works in the school system but declined to comment further.
Judge Deglau criticized the teacher for what she called “victimization.”
