EL CENTRO, CALIF. — A Nebraska middle school teacher accused of running away to Mexico with a 13-year-old to have sex with him appeared in court Monday to face charges.
Kelsey Peterson said nothing as charges that she crossed the border to have sex with a minor were read by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Lewis. The judge scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, when Peterson can decide whether to waive extradition to Nebraska.
Peterson’s court-appointed attorney, Diane Regan, declined to comment.
Peterson, 25, was a sixth- grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, and the boy was once her student.
The subject of a week-long search, Peterson was taken into custody Friday in Mexicali, Mexico, after the boy’s relatives told police that he had called home asking for money. She was turned over to FBI agents early Saturday and is being held at the Imperial County jail in El Centro, about 120 miles east of San Diego.
Authorities in Mexico said the boy told police of vague but romantic plans with Peterson to scrap normal teenage life for a life of hiding in southern or central Mexico. Investigators have said they have recovered e-mails and letters in which they both express affection.
Peterson is charged in Nebraska with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Alfredo Arenas, the Mexican state police official who detained Peterson, said she and the boy had an agreement to flee after stories surfaced that they were having sex.
The two were located through a global-positioning device on Peterson’s phone, Arenas said.
The boy was turned over to relatives in Mexico. He was an illegal immigrant while residing in the United States and might not be able to return to the rural Nebraska town where he was an eighth-grader.
