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Farmington » A former Bountiful Junior High math teacher was sentenced to prison for up to 30 years Monday for having a two-month sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy who was once her student.
Valynne Bowers, 41, had pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court to two counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse, each punishable by up to 15 years behind bars.
Judge John Morris gave Bowers the maximum by ordering the two terms to run consecutively.
The judge said a single episode of sexual contact might have resulted in a more lenient sentence.
"This was repeated conduct by an adult toward a child," the judge said. "This is about a community's response to conduct ... deemed unacceptable."
Prosecutor Rick Westmoreland had asked for consecutive terms saying, "Society needs to know it can trust teachers."
Defense attorney Rich Gallegos — who said later he was "a little shocked" by the sentence — had requested probation and a year in jail.
Gallegos cited Bowers' lack of any prior criminal record, her completion of sex-offender therapy and the many letters of support from former students, their parents and the community. Gallegos noted that evaluations show Bowers is not a sexual predator and is not a risk to re-offend.
He also stressed that it was the boy, not Bowers, who initiated the relationship.
Bowers — due to loneliness, low self-esteem and lack of appropriate boundaries — failed to rebuff the boy, Gallegos said.
Bowers told the court: "I just wanted to let my victim know how truly sorry I am and how remorseful I am, and I truly take responsibility."
Neither the boy nor his parents attended the sentencing hearing.
Bowers was initially charged with five counts of rape and three counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies punishable by up to life in prison.
During a preliminary hearing in 2009, the boy testified he initiated contact with Bowers in December 2008 by showing up to her after-school math study sessions, where he got her cell phone number and began texting and talking to her.
The boy revealed personal problems, including having been sexually molested as a younger child.
The communications turned sexual, the two engaged in phone sex and they had intercourse in January 2009. Soon after, the boy began giving her guitar lessons at her home, where they had sex every Friday night until the end of February 2009.
Then, in March 2009, Linda Nef, another Bountiful Junior High teacher, went to police and told them she had a sexual relationship with the same boy when he was 13 years old. Nef also told police about Bowers.
Nef, 48, who taught Utah social studies, later pleaded guilty to one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, admitting she had sex with the boy from Jan. 1, 2008, through Feb. 14, 2008.
Nef was sentenced in July 2009 to prison for three years to life. Her first parole hearing will be in July 2012.
In charging Bowers with first-degree felonies, prosecutors claimed the boy could not legally consent to have sex with her because she occupied a position of special trust as a teacher.
Gallegos has denied there was any teacher-student relationship because no sexual conduct occurred at school and Bowers was not the boy's teacher at the time of the crimes. He has repeatedly stated "there was no lack of consent" on the boy's part.