Castle Rock – A Ponderosa High School teacher who had sex with a troubled, underage student will spend two years in prison under a plea agreement announced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court.
Nicole Barnhart, 36, a married mother of two, will formally enter the plea Jan. 3 on two felony charges stemming from incidents early this year. In addition to prison time, the former social studies teacher will receive at least 10 years’ probation and must register as a sex offender.
The plea ended a nine-month saga involving the teacher and her former 16-year-old male student, whom Barnhart admitted having sex with twice. The boy’s parents earlier notified the Douglas County School District of their intent to sue for $2 million.
Barnhart – her attorney stroking her back as comfort during the five-minute proceeding – listened as a prosecutor read the agreement to Judge Paul King. Barnhart did not speak, and her attorney, Iris Eytan, declined to comment afterward.
“I think the message here is that if you’re a teacher having sex with kids and we can prove it, then you’re going to prison,” Deputy District Attorney Darren Vahle said in an interview.
As part of the deal, the Highlands Ranch woman will plead guilty to sexual assault on a child and criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child.
“This (plea) is certainly important for (the boy’s) long-term treatment,” said David Savitz, the attorney for the boy and his family. “A person in a position of trust committed two felonies against him, and he did nothing wrong.”
The episode, Savitz said, “has taken (the teen’s) whole universe and blown it to smithereens.”
Barnhart was arrested in mid-March, shortly after a county sheriff’s deputy spotted the teacher and the then-10th-grader together in a van at the end of a dirt road in Castlewood Canyon. Barnhart resigned her teaching position later that month.
Barnhart allegedly had been counseling the sophomore for suicidal thoughts and for alcohol and cocaine abuse, according to court records.
The two struck up a relationship during their talks, with Barnhart cooking the boy lobster and other meals at her house while the teen hung out with her young children.
Barnhart later admitted to police that she kissed the boy, and “he begged me” for about 20 minutes for sex.
On March 10 the pair had sex in the back of her van, she told police. Five days later, she said, they again had sex in the van.
“He tells me he loves me and he wants to make love to me, and everything’s OK,” an arrest affidavit quotes her as saying.
In an interview with police, the boy said he felt “safe” when he was with her. “I’m bigger than she is,” he said in the interview.
Barnhart had been a teacher in the Douglas County School District since 1995 and at Ponderosa since August 2002.
Barnhart had a tumultuous tenure at Ponderosa, even before the sexual-assault charges.
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or rsanchez@denverpost.com.
