Castle Rock – Exchanges in court Monday suggest that a former Ponderosa High School teacher might not stand trial on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old student.
The attorney for 36-year-old teacher Nicole Barnhart asked Judge Paul King to postpone the scheduled arraignment because she wanted to “show some documentation” to the prosecutor to help close the case.
Deputy District Attorney Darren Vahle told the judge he has offered a plea deal to Barnhart, who faces felony sexual assault charges.
Barnhart, who is married with two children, told investigators that she had sex twice with the 10th-grade boy because “he begged me,” according to court records. “He tells me he loves me and he wants to make love to me, and everything’s OK,” the arrest affidavit quotes her as saying.
David Savitz, the attorney for the boy and his family, said Monday: “My clients sent their son to school to be educated in English, math, history and geography. Instead, he got a sex education.”
After the hearing, prosecution and defense attorneys refused to comment.
Accompanied to court by her parents, the former social studies teacher was ready to plead not guilty. Her attorney, Iris Eytan, however, asked the judge to hold off on setting a trial date until she could show Vahle the new information.
King told lawyers to return Dec. 20 to either announce a plea agreement or to set a date for a trial.
Barnhart resigned her teaching job after her arrest in March. She had earlier lost her role as a cheerleading coach after parents complained about her behavior, including an inappropriate party for cheerleaders at her home.
Barnhart said she had been counseling the alleged victim because he was abusing drugs and alcohol and quarreling with his mother.
Their relationship began to unravel March 18, when a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy found Barnhart and the boy together in her van parked along a dirt road in Castlewood Canyon. During the investigation, friends and the boy’s younger brother said he had bragged about having sex numerous times with the teacher.
Students have told reporters and investigators that Barnhart was affectionate with the boy, including walking arm-in-arm with him in school hallways and cooking him a lobster dinner in her home while her husband was away.
“It’s obvious to us that there was a total lack of supervision (of Barnhart) and a climate of looking the other way,” Savitz said.
Savitz has notified the school district that the family intends to sue for $2 million. School officials have until mid-December to respond before Savitz files the lawsuit.
Barnhart had been a teacher in Douglas County since 1995, moving to Ponderosa High in 2002 after teaching eighth-grade social studies at Ranchview Middle School.
