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Middleton Teacher Pleads Guilty

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By TOM BRENNAN

tbrennan@tampatrib.com

Published: October 24, 2008

Christina Butler

TAMPA - Middleton High School special education teacher Christina Lin Butler pleaded guilty Thursday to felony lewdness charges related to a three-week affair with a 16-year-old ninth-grader.

Butler entered her plea before Hillsborough County Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett.

It was an open plea, meaning prosecutors have not agreed to a reduced sentence in exchange for the admission of guilt. Butler, 34, faces up to 30 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10.

Prosecutor Anthony Duran said he will "ask for a substantial prison sentence."

Butler's plea came a year to the day after her Oct. 23, 2007, arrest on charges of lewd and lascivious battery. She initially was suspended without pay, and her contract wasn't renewed in June.

Butler and her attorneys declined to comment, saying they would wait until sentencing. They told Padgett they planned to present a number of witnesses on Butler's behalf at sentencing.

Officers stumbled across the affair when they stopped the student while he was driving Butler's Jeep Grand Cherokee. The officers were watching a nearby apartment complex looking for car thieves. The student was pulled over after driving erratically on North 22nd Street.

One of the passengers in the car said the student and Butler had a relationship.

Suspicious, the officers questioned Butler when she arrived on the scene. At first she said the relationship was platonic; later she acknowledged it was sexual.

Butler told officers she had sex with the student in her home during the preceding three-week period.

Duran said the state had DNA evidence and recorded statements from Butler.

He said the strength of the case was one reason the state attorney's office wasn't willing to deal - that and the nature of the crime.

"Not with a case involving a teacher and student in special education classes, with a mental disability," Duran said.

The prosecutor only referred to the victim by the initials VB. He said the student was "borderline mentally retarded."

Duran said the victim was a student in Butler's class and that Butler developed an attraction to him. He said she took the student to her apartment to have sex.

Butler pleaded guilty to two counts of felony charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing an unlicensed driver to use her car.

She faces a 15-year sentence on each felony charge.

Duran said Butler allowing the student to use her car led to his arrest and criminal record.

Another Middleton student, a 15-year-old girl, was suspended as a gossip-monger after refusing to stop talking about rumors of an affair after telling a school official.

Both Butler and the boy had denied the affair when questioned by school officials.

Both students have informed the Hillsborough County School Board of their intention to sue over the incidents.

The attorney for the male student said Butler made romantic advances that led to the sexual relationship.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 259-7698.

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