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A September trial for a former Davis High School English teacher accused of a having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student has been canceled after prosecutors filed more charges against the woman.
In the new charges, prosecutors filed one additional count of rape and one charge of forcible sodomy against Brianne Land Altice, 35, after a 17-year-old told police that he had sexual intercourse and oral sex with the former teacher once between April and June of last year.
Altice was originally charged in 2nd District Court with three counts of first-degree felony rape and one count of first-degree felony forcible sodomy. According to court documents, Altice is accused of having sexual intercourse with a then-16-year-old student on several occasions between January and September of 2013.
After the new charges were filed, Altice's attorney, Edward Brass, asked that the upcoming trial be canceled so his client could have a preliminary hearing on the new charges. Judge Thomas Kay granted the request, and set a scheduling conference for Friday.
Prosecutors say the teacher acknowledged to investigators that she had engaged in sex with the 16-year-old boy on two occasions. But Brass has asked the judge to not allow those statements at her trial, arguing that she was intimidated by the 8-10 male officers who came to her home last October to interview her about the allegations. Brass argued that the officers would not let her care for children, call an attorney or use the restroom for nearly four hours as they questioned her.
"Her statements were coerced and involuntary and were taken in violation of her so-called Miranda rights," Brass argued in court papers. "The evidence she provided was the product of that tainted statement."
The former teacher has been free on $10,000 bail since her arrest. She was on paid leave until she was fired Feb. 3.
Altice, whose husband filed for divorce and custody of their child in December, was hired by the Davis County School District in 2004; she had been teaching at the high school since August 2012.
Twitter: @jm_miller