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Christie Elliot, a now-former English teacher and cheerleading coach at Empire High School in Tucson, pleaded guilty last month to assault of sexual nature on a minor of 15 years or less after it was revealed that she had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.
Today, she was sentenced to three years probation. She faced up to two years in prison.
Initially, Elliot faced charges of luring a minor for sexual exploitation and sexual conduct with a minor. She also faced one count of bribing a witness for trying to get the victim to change his story after the relationship was discovered.
Elliott admitted last month that she kissed the boy, which is a far cry from initial allegations that she had him “touch her intimately.”
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The victim’s parents, police say, found inappropriate messages on their son’s cell phone in April 2010 and called police.
After serving search warrants and interviewing those involved, police determined that the student had an inappropriate sexual relationship with Elliot, who happened to be his English teacher at the time.
