Ashley Weber, a high school history teacher in Henrico County, pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of having consensual sex with a minor student and will serve up to a year in jail.
Back in August, we told you the story about Ashley Weber, a 31-year-old married high school teacher, who was charged with having consensual sex with a male student. Mrs. Weber taught history at Freeman High School -- that is, until the news of her arrest made the evening news. During summer vacation, the teacher brought the 15-year-old boy to her own parents' home. At the time that the charges were made public, a spokesperson for the Henrico County School District tried to put some distance between them and Mrs. Weber. The spokesperson emphasized that Weber was "not a year-round employee" and that the school had "few details about the allegations other than what has been publicly reported." Well, we now know that Ashley Weber has pled guilty to two counts of having consensual sex with a child over the age of 15. She was originally sentenced to 12 months in jail for each of the offenses, though the judge intervened and suspended the sentence on one of the counts. Therefore, she will only serve a maximum of one year. Prosecutors, however, expect her to only serve around six months of that sentence behind bars.
During the trial, prosecutors ultimately decided to drop the felony charge of using a communications device to propose a sex act with a minor. While they had compiled a number of suggestive text messages between Weber and her victim, they were not confident it would be enough to land a conviction at trial.
Although the encounters were reportedly consensual, Weber's victim was only 15-to-16 years old. The 15 years of age difference between Weber and her student is what made the multiple sexual encounters misdemeanor crimes.
When presented with the opportunity to address the court, Weber refused to make a statement. Judge Margaret W. Deglau was obviously upset about the case as a whole and took an opportunity to lecture Weber from the bench.
“This was victimization," the judge scolded her. "You are a person who could have made a great change in his life, positive change."
When Weber was formally sentenced, the judge ordered her to cease all contact with her victim.