Pamela Rogers Turner
Pamela Joan Rogers (born July 1, 1977) is an American former elementary school physical education teacher and coach who taught in McMinnville, Tennessee. A convicted child molester and sexual predator, she sexually molested a 13-year-old boy who was one of her students in Centertown Elementary School. As of August 2020, she is still in jail having already spent more than a decade in prison (since 2006 with a brief period of probation between 2012/2015).
Pamela Joan Rogers | |
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Born | |
Occupation | Former teacher |
Criminal status | After being released in 2012, she is under arrest again since 2015 in cellphone case (facing up 6 to 30 years in prison). |
Spouse(s) | Christopher Turner (2003–2005; divorced) |
Criminal charge | Sexual battery, probation violation, cellphone case |
Penalty | Incarceration (270 days) Probation (7 years 3 months; violated, revoked) Incarceration (7 years) on revocation Incarceration (2 years), sending nude pictures to a minor |
Background
Born on 1st July 1977, Turner attended Tennessee Technological University and Cumberland University, playing basketball for both. [1]
Crime
According to court documentation, Rogers had sex with the student on at least 12 occasions, including oral, vaginal, and manual sex, as well as having the student engage in oral sex and digital penetration on her.[2]
Criminal prosecution
Rogers faced 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 13 counts of statutory rape on February 4, 2005. The charges stemmed from her three-month relationship with a teenage boy. She was 27 years old at the time of the relationship. Following her arrest, she posted bail of $50,000. When originally charged, she pleaded not guilty.
On August 12 2005, Rogers pleaded no contest to four charges of sexual battery by an authority figure as part of a deal with the prosecution. Her sentence was 270 days (about nine months) in the Warren County jail in Tennessee. During an eight-year suspended sentence, she also had to serve a term of seven years and three months of probation, surrender her teaching certificate, and register as a sex offender for life because sexual battery by an authority figure is a "violent sexual offense" under the law of the state of Tennessee.[3] The sentence not only prohibits her from profiting from the case (including books and movies), but also bars her from granting interviews for eight years. It also effectively ended her teaching career, as most states will not issue a teaching license to a convicted felon.
Rogers was arrested again on April 24, 2006 on charges that she had sent text messages, nude photos, and sex videos of herself to the same boy while using her father's cellphone. She was also charged for communicating with the boy via blogs and a website. The judge ordered Rogers to remain in jail until her next court hearing. On July 14, 2006, she was sentenced to seven years in prison for violating her probation by sending explicit videos to her former victim and maintaining contact with him via online blogs. Rogers asked for mercy and apologized to her family and the teen's family, saying tearfully to the judge, "I have humiliated myself. What I did was wrong, I am willing to do anything to rehabilitate myself." She asked for local incarceration with therapy. Circuit Judge Bart Stanley denied her request saying, "You have done everything except show this court that you wanted to rehabilitate yourself." He revoked Rogers' probation and ordered her to serve the rest of a seven-year prison sentence at the Tennessee Prison for Women.[4][5]
Rogers received two additional years of prison time in January 2007, after she pleaded guilty to sending nude photos of herself to the boy.[6][7]
After her release from prison, Rogers was arrested again in June 2015, in a separate case where she allegedly conspired with two current inmates to smuggle cell phones into the state prison where she had been incarcerated. She is still in prison held on $50,000 bond; her arrest brought national attention to the problem of cellphones as illegal contraband in prisons. This, and a television documentary (Twisted: Teachers Who Prey[8]) about her sexual abuse, made her a famous example of teachers sexual abuse, but the price was the possibility of many more years in jail (6 to 30 years if convicted).[9]
Personal life
In 1997, Turner was Ms. Monday Nitro in World Championship Wrestling at Spring Break festivities.[10] She married Christopher Turner, a high school basketball coach, in 2003. He filed for divorce in January 2005, around the time of her indictment. Separated since 2004, the couple was already experiencing marital difficulties when her legal troubles came to light.[11]
In July 2017 her brother Alvin Rogers was arrested. Charges included rape involving a minor.[12]
Notes
- Tenn. community's image of teacher shattered by charges of sex with 13-year-old student | News | wcfcourier.com
- Another Teacher Nabbed For Student Sex | The Smoking Gun
- http://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2010/title-40/chapter-39/part-2/40-39-202
- "Ex-teacher goes to jail for nude photos". Archived from the original on July 19, 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-15.
- Ex-Teacher Ignores Probation Order About.com
- "Teacher's Obsession Costs Her Two More Years in Jail". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Archived from the original on January 14, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
- Ex-Teacher Gets 2 More Years for Photos January 10, 2007.
- "Twisted: Teachers Who Prey".
- "Pamela Rogers Arrested In Contraband Investigation". Pamela Rogers Turner. Tennessee. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
- "Teacher's sex case has town in turmoil". Tennessean.com. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- "Attorney says divorce not related to marriage breakup". AP. Archived from the original on March 12, 2005. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- INVESTIGATION CONTINUES REGARDING MAN CHARGED WITH RAPE, HIS SISTER PREVIOUSLY CONVICTED OF SEX CRIMES – 105.7 News Crossville Rockwood Knoxville TN
References
- Felony Offender Information TOMIS ID: 00396311
- Jail For Teacher In Sex Case Aug. 12, 2005