Fugitive Teacher Arrested in Mexico

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Fugitive Teacher Arrested in Mexico
By OSKAR GARCIA,AP
Posted: 2007-11-03 16:16:00
Filed Under: Nation News
LEXINGTON, Neb. (Nov. 3) - A female teacher was in FBI custody Saturday as federal and local prosecutors sought to determine how they would handle charges alleging that she ran away with a 13-year-old boy, taking him across the border into Mexico.


Photo Gallery: Teacher Sex Scandals
Corbey R. Dorsey, Tri-City Tribune / AP Kelsey Peterson is accused of having an intimate relationship with a 13-year-old student at the Nebraska school where she teaches math and coaches basketball.
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Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old sixth-grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, was turned over to the FBI early Saturday after being arrested the night before in the border city of Mexicali.

The boy, Fernando Rodriguez, was reported in the care of relatives in Mexico, and his family in Nebraska was trying to contact him.

"I need to find out what's next," said the boy's aunt, Laura Rodriguez, who said she still had not talked to him about seven hours after learning he had been recovered.

Peterson and Fernando were apprehended by Mexican authorities without incident. Her car had been spotted crossing into Mexico on Tuesday.

"I'm really relieved, especially that the individuals are well and unharmed," Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said.

It was not immediately clear where Peterson was being held. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Vincent Bond said Peterson was taken to the border station at Calexico, Calif., and positively identified through her fingerprints, then left the station with FBI agents.

An FBI spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Saturday.

A judge issued an arrest warrant Monday charging Peterson with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Peterson also faces federal charges, filed Thursday, that include transporting a minor across state lines or a foreign border for sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher said.

Stecher said he didn't intend to double-prosecute Peterson, and would work with Waterman to decide in which jurisdiction she would face charges.

Peterson and the boy fled after police began investigating whether the pair had an intimate relationship, authorities said.

Court documents showed authorities had recovered several e-mails and letters in which Peterson and the boy professed their affection for one another.

In letters, the boy called Peterson his "Baby Gurl" and said their relationship was "just not about the sex but that it was pretty good," according to the court documents.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who may be victims of sex crimes, but the boy's name had been widely publicized as police searched for him.

Fernando Rodriguez was an eighth-grader at Lexington Middle School, but district Superintendent Todd Chessmore said Rodriguez had been in Peterson's 6th-grade math class. He said he placed Peterson on paid administrative leave on Oct. 25.

Peterson's car crossed into Mexico on Tuesday at San Ysidro Port of Entry, which separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, Lexington police said. The car's license plate was noted by an automated system that scans the plates of all vehicles passing through the entry point.

Southbound cars typically are not stopped because "our focus is on what's entering the United States," said Vince Bond, a spokesman with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Diego.

Peterson's school-issued laptop contained letters to the student, including one from April saying she loved him, thought he loved her, was "100 percent faithful" to him and would always be faithful, the court documents state.

Laura Rodriguez also said the family believed Peterson gave the boy a cell phone without his family's knowledge so she could reach him more easily. There was no response to messages left for a cell phone listed to a Kelsey Peterson of Lexington.


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-11-01 18:03:01

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