Ex-teacher facing more charges

A former Millard middle school teacher accused of having sex with an eighth-grader will face more charges in her December retrial.

A 12-member jury deadlocked in July, when Stephanie A. Draper went on trial on one count of first-degree sexual assault.

Now, Draper faces additional charges of one count of third-degree sexual assault and one count of attempted first-degree sexual assault.

Prosecutor Matt Lierman said he's confident the evidence supports the charges.

“This certainly gives the jury more options with what they want to do with the case,” he said.

Said Draper's attorney, Chris Perrone: “The state was unsuccessful with obtaining a guilty verdict the first time, so they threw in a couple of other charges with the hope that the jury will bite on something.”

Prosecutors said Draper had sex with an eighth-grader in 2002, when the boy was 14.

Draper met the boy at Millard North Middle School, where she was a teacher. She never taught him.

The boy, now 21, testified in July that Draper gave him alcohol and cigarettes, took his virginity and taught him how to perform oral sex.

He said he began smoking marijuana to cope with the pain of being molested. He cut and burned himself, he said, and stopped going to high school because he couldn't trust his teachers. He also described having trust problems with friends, especially girls. In e-mails shown to the court, Draper admitted crossing some lines but denied that she had sexually assaulted the boy.

Draper, now 36, wrote that she had been inappropriate with the boy “only about 10 percent of the time.” She said he had manipulated her when she was only trying to mentor him.

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444-1336, leia.baez@owh.com