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Teacher Faces Sex Charge

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

News Channel 8 Video Report

TAMPA - Undercover officers looking for car thieves Tuesday discovered a sexual relationship between a Middleton High School teacher and a teenage boy whom they pulled over driving the teacher's Jeep Grand Cherokee, officials said.

Tampa police charged Christina Lin Butler, 33, of 3504 N. Tampa St., on Tuesday with felony lewd and lascivious battery after the traffic stop.

Christina Lin Butler

Investigators said she and a 16-year-old ninth-grader had oral sex and intercourse at Butler's home during the past three weeks.

School district spokesman Steve Hegarty said Butler is classified as a special-education teacher, but she does not work with severely disabled students. She had several classes of 15 to 20 students who follow the regular curriculum but need tutoring, he said.

Butler has no criminal record in Florida or in her native state of Maryland, public records show. Her employment application with the school district shows she graduated from the University of Tampa in 2006 and previously worked at a pet hospital, Hegarty said.

A former substitute teacher, Butler began working full-time for the school district in August, earning $35,000 annually, Hegarty said. She is suspended with pay until the school board can meet to determine her employment status, he said. The school board's next meeting will be Nov. 6.

Butler was released from a Hillsborough County jail Wednesday morning on $7,500 bail, records show.

She did not answer the door at her home Wednesday morning. Attempts to reach her relatives were unsuccessful.

Police said undercover officers from a street anti-crime unit were watching Meridian Apartments, at 2450 E. Hillsborough Ave., for suspicious activity when they saw six teenage boys wearing green-and-white Halloween skeleton gloves.

The boys quickly rode out of the complex on bicycles, crossed Hillsborough Avenue, stopping traffic, then turned south on 24th Street, police said. A few moments later, the officers saw the gloved teenagers again, this time driving erratically in a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee on North 22nd Street.

The officers pulled over the Jeep after it twice crossed the double yellow lines, police said. They determined that the Jeep belonged to the teacher.

The 16-year-old driver told police that he did not have a license and said his friend Christina let him use the Jeep. Police called Butler to the scene to pick up her vehicle.

While Butler was en route, another officer spoke with one of the teenagers, who said Butler and the 16-year-old had a relationship, police said. When asked what kind of relationship, 'he just smiled and said, 'I don't know what they do; they are just good friends,' and smiled again,' police said.

Suspicious, the officers questioned Butler upon her arrival. She at first said her relationship with the teenager was platonic, and then she said it was sexual, police said.

'They thought they were getting kids who were joy-riding,' Davis said. 'How surprised were they when this turned out to be something else.'

Police decided not to file charges against the teenager for driving without a license, because 'when you look at the totality of the circumstances, he is a victim of a crime,' Davis said.

At the school, parents were shocked.

'I don't know what's wrong with these teachers,' Dorthea Mobley said. 'You go to school and get this degree and let it go just to mess around with a young boy. Not right.'

Anissa Pickett said the teacher should have taken note of other instances in which teachers and students were involved.

'I feel it's really ridiculous the fact that she did that after all these other cases,' she said. 'I mean, really, doesn't she watch TV?'

News Channel 8 reporters Chip Osowski and Peter Bernard, and Tribune reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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