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Draper • When former junior high school teacher Stephen Niedzwiecki began sexually abusing a 15-year-old student, it affected more than just the girl.
It was like a grenade went off in Jaime Heiner's family, her brother said during a Tuesday parole hearing for Niedzwiecki. And nearly four years after the crimes, Benjamin Heiner said his family is still struggling to pick up the tattered pieces.
"There is not one person in my family who hasn't been touched by this," Heiner said. "We all have been hurt by this. And Jaime [Heiner] most of all."
One year ago, Niedzwiecki was sent to the Utah State Prison after pleading guilty to four third-degree felonies — two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a 16- to 17-year-old.
A judge gave the maximum sentence possible to the former Jefferson Academy coach and teacher: four consecutive five-year prison terms.
Niedzwiecki, 35, had his original parole board hearing Tuesday, where he told Utah Board of Pardons and Parole member Clark Harms that he was invited into the Heiner home in 2011 as he was struggling with divorcing his wife and family health issues. He began sexually abusing Jaime Heiner that summer, and by December, he asked her parents if he could date her.
"They gave permission," Niedzwiecki said. "It hurts so much to think what I must have done to convince them it was OK."
The relationship with the girl who was 17 years younger than he continued until April 2012, Niedzwiecki said.
"I am so sorry for what I did to my victim," he said Tuesday. "I took a very sacred and special thing from her. ... I could not look myself in the mirror for a very long time, and I barely can now."
Benjamin Heiner said his entire family has felt guilt about the abusive situation, adding that he was overseas "when the wolf came to the door" and could not help his younger sister.
"But to sit here and to have this guy characterize the relationship as somehow endorsed by our family is not true," he said. "He came into our life, into my parents' life, and he used the best parts of them to get what he wanted. He used their compassion, their caring, their nurturing. My parents wanted to help him. They invited him in as a family member, not as a potential suitor for their 14-year-old child."
The now-19-year-old victim — who moved out of state in the last year — was not at the Draper prison for Tuesday's hearing, but her brother read aloud a letter she wrote, as her parents dabbed tears from their eyes.
In the letter, Jaime Heiner asked that her abuser not be granted parole.
"I don't believe Mr. Niedzwiecki is sorry for his crimes," the letter read. "I believe he is sorry he got caught. That he didn't manipulate me better. ... There is no doubt in my mind that he will have another victim. This is not a man that has a desire to change. This is something he was proudly doing his entire life. I believe if he were granted a parole date, he would be a menace to the community."
No decisions were made during Tuesday's hearing, but Harms told Niedzwiecki the parole board would likely set a rehearing at a later date to allow him time to enter into and complete sexual offender treatment at the prison.
The Salt Lake Tribune does not generally name victims of sexual abuse, but is doing so in Jaime Heiner's case, with her permission, because she has gone public with her experience and is using it to encourage other victims to speak out.
After Niedzwiecki pleaded guilty last January, Heiner began publicly advocating for Prevent Child Abuse Utah, and she started her own victim-empowerment organization, I Am My Own Hero.
"My biggest thing is abuse awareness and victim empowerment," she told The Tribune last year. "Throughout the time I was being abused, I didn't know what abuse was. I thought I was the only one and that kept me silent for a really long time because I didn't realize that one in three women are sexually abused."
Twitter: @jm_miller