Ohio prosecutor: Teacher smoked pot, had sex with boys

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Denise Smith Amos , The Cincinnati Enquirer 6:14 p.m. EDT August 1, 2013

 

COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A Colerain High School teacher is free on bond after being accused of having sex with two 16-year-old students in her Loveland, Ohio, home in the spring.

Julie Hautzenroeder, 36, faces two charges of sexual battery, which carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison if she is convicted. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court and posted a $1,000 bond.

 

Her trial is set Aug. 14.

Hautzenroeder is a science teacher who has worked for the Northwest Local School District since 2003 as a substitute teacher and as a permanent teacher at Colerain High since 2006. She was put on administrative leave.

She is a single mother of a 7-year-old girl.

One Friday night in late April or mid-May, she is alleged to have invited the two boys, who knew each other, to her home to spend the night, gave them alcohol and marijuana and had sex with them, said Joshua Berkowitz, the assistant prosecutor handling her case.

The police incident report said she had oral sex with one boy and intercourse with the other.

The boys are unsure of the exact date this occurred, Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz added that an adult female in Hautzenroeder's home saw her smoke marijuana with the boys that night but left before the boys and the teacher allegedly had sex.

Berkowitz said he believes Hautzenroeder's daughter was in the house but was probably asleep.

Hautzenroeder has acknowledged "certain aspects of the incident" but is denying anyone had sex, the prosecutor said.

Her phone and at least one of the boys' phones indicate they exchanged text messages, but Hautzenroeder claims the text messages are part of a misunderstanding, he said.

"She says it doesn't mean what (we) think it does," he said.

William Stewart Mathews II, Hautzenroeder's lawyer, declined to comment on the case.

"I prefer to try my cases in a courtroom," he said.