Ex-Middleton High Teacher Gets Probation In Sex Case

Former Middleton High School special education teacher Christina Lin Butler was placed on probation for five years on Wednesday for having a felonious three-week sexual relationship with a 16-year-old ninth-grader.

Hillsborough County Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett also ordered Butler to continue to get mental health counseling as a condition of avoiding prison. She also was designated a sexual offender and must register as such for the rest of her life.

Padgett was swayed by testimony that Butler, 34, has a variety of mental problems including bipolar disorder and suffered a serious brain injury when beaten by her stepfather at age 13.

The judge also said the student might be as culpable as Butler.

"He was probably the more mature of the two participants and probably less vulnerable," he said, adding that the student was "perhaps the instigator of these acts."

Butler, 34, pleaded guilty in October to a felony count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. She also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing an unlicensed driver to use her car. Padgett imposed no additional jail time for the misdemeanors.

Butler faced up to 30 years in prison. Assistant State Attorney Anthony Duran argued that jail time was warranted.

"This is an issue of trust," he said. "What she did violated the trust of the whole community."

Butler, her parents and her attorneys had no comment.

A tearful Butler was surrounded by friends and co-workers who exchanged hugs after the sentencing.

"We're happy," said Wendi Aruta, who works with Butler at the Animal Coalition of Tampa. "Very happy."

The coalition closed its facility this afternoon so its staff could show its support for Butler.

Clinical psychologists Eldra Solomon and Yolanda Leon testified that Butler couldn't get the medication and therapy she needs in prison.

Solomon said the combination of mental problems and brain injury compromised her ability to make mature decisions.

"The whole thing doesn't fit with who she is," she said. "I really fear for her life if she's sent to prison."

Testimony showed Butler has been suicidal since her arrest.

The psychologists said Butler was not equipped to handle a high school classroom. They said she didn't have the training, experience or support.

Butler told the judge the students threatened her daily and she began to see her victim as her protector because he stood up for her.

"I saw him not as a 16-year-old student but as a man who was protecting me," she said.

Leon said it was an example of Butler's inability to make appropriate decisions. She didn't understand, Leon said, that the teacher was supposed to protect the student. She said Butler shouldn't have been a special education teacher.

"She doesn't have the skills to fill that role, that position," she said.

Butler didn't try to duck responsibility for her actions.

"Every single day I relive it, and every single day I'm sorry," she said.

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

Public Defender Maria Paulidis told Padgett that probation wouldn't be out of line with sentences other Hillsborough County teachers have received for similar offenses.

Former Newsome High School girls soccer coach Ronald Eugene Lewis was placed on a year of house arrest and nine years of probation in November after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 17-year-old student. Prosecutors agreed to probation after the victim told them she didn't want to testify in a trial or pretrial preparation.

Former Greco Middle School reading teacher Debra Lafave was placed on house arrest for three years and given seven years of subsequent probation for having sex with a 14-year-old student. She also was branded a sex offender.