Judge: "A male would have gotten 20 years"
Posted on 07/31/2002 7:53:08 AM PDT by blackbag
Fallen a long way
Judge: "A male would have gotten 20 years"
Betty Mackie is sentenced to eight to 10 months in prison for having sex with a middle school student of hers.
RALEIGH - Betty G. Mackie, at one time praised, honored and beloved for her skills in opening the world of literature to hundreds of Wake County pupils, must turn herself in today for a prison sentence of at least eight months for having sex two years ago with a 13-year-old boy, a former student.
Mackie, 47, was sentenced at a hearing Tuesday for her May 22 guilty plea to the felony. Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald W. Stephens granted Mackie's request for an extra day of freedom to consult with her doctors, who have been treating her for bipolar disorder, the mental illness once known as manic-depression.
At the hearing, the boy's parents urged Stephens to punish Mackie for her "rape" of their son. They called her a sexual deviant who took advantage of the trust she held as a teacher.
Mackie's attorney, Joseph B. Cheshire V, said that Mackie took responsibility for what happened and that her illness was not an excuse. He noted the waves of support for Mackie from former students and their parents, and he said Mackie is full of shame and guilt for her actions.
"She has fallen a long way," he said. "She will never teach again, which is the most important thing in her life. She is remorseful. ... If you incarcerate her for every day you can, you cannot punish her more than she has herself."
Courtroom 3A filled with Mackie's friends and family, courthouse regulars and other observers for the sentencing Tuesday. Mackie arrived with her husband, Dal, and two grown children. She sat at the defense table stiff and unmoving as Assistant District Attorney Howard Cummings told the story.
Mackie taught in the Wake County public schools for 18 years, first at Underwood Elementary School, then at Ligon Middle School and for the past year at Broughton High School. Parents and other teachers admired her devotion to students and her gift for igniting a love of reading. In November, she was awarded national board certification, a rare honor.
Cummings said that while Mackie was at Ligon, she taught a sixth-grade class that included a boy in whom she took an interest. For his seventh-grade year, Mackie invited the boy, then 13, to join a journalism class. Cummings said Mackie often took the boy out to restaurants and gave him rides home. His parents, Cummings said, were thrilled by Mackie's attention to their son's education.
In June 2000, Mackie asked the boy to help her move school computers. She picked him up in her car, but instead of going to Ligon Middle School, Cummings said, Mackie took the boy to her North Raleigh house.
"She showed him around, then there was a hug," Cummings said. "Things progressed, with clothing being removed and kissing, then sexual intercourse occurred."
She then took the boy to his home, "telling him that no one needed to know about what they had done, there was nothing wrong with it, and it was OK to do it again," Cummings said. "He didn't want to do it again."
Cummings said later that Mackie called the boy several times asking for his help on school chores, and he always declined.
The boy told no one of the encounter until this spring, when he mentioned "inappropriate conduct" to a classmate, Cummings said. The boy then wrote an e-mail message with a vague reference to the event that his father happened to see.
The News & Observer does not identify the victims of sex crimes and has withheld the parents' names to avoid identifying the victim.
In April, Raleigh police questioned Mackie, and she admitted having sex with the boy. She was charged with the felony of sexual conduct between a teacher and student, resigned as a teacher and pleaded guilty.
On Tuesday, in written statements read aloud with a mixture of rage and mourning, the boy's parents joined with Cummings in demanding that Mackie be given the maximum prison sentence of eight to 10 months.
"Our son is a strong, kind, accomplished child, and if this could happen to him, it could happen to anyone's son," his mother said.
His father said he and his wife noticed changes in their son in the past two years, but they never questioned him, and, "We have to live with this failure to act for the rest of our lives."
Cheshire pleaded for Mackie to serve a probationary sentence. On Friday, he filed a 30-page memorandum on Mackie's struggle with bipolar disorder, a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes wild swings in mood between exhilarating mania and crushing depression. The depression is often accompanied by thoughts of suicide; the mania can bring on risky behavior of all kinds, including sexual activity.
Attached to the memorandum were 21 exhibits, including letters from students and parents lauding Mackie for her brilliance as a teacher. Her doctors wrote that she has been under treatment since 1983 and that in June 2000 she had skipped her medication for at least four days, triggering a mania.
When the lawyers finished talking, Stephens stared down at his desk for a full minute, silent.
"I'm having my 18th year on the bench," he said at last, "and a friend told me once that he thought my job must be exciting. I told him that most days, it's very, very sad. It's days like today in which that is very, very true."
Although acknowledging that Mackie was ill, Stephens said the sickness could not prevent the imposition of prison time, and he then asked the sheriff's deputies to take her into custody. Stephens said if Mackie were a man, she probably would have been charged with a more serious felony that would have called for as much as 20 years in prison. But regardless of her sex, he said, the court system had to punish the act.
"There are some things that you do in this life that pretty much makes the decision," he said.
Cheshire asked for a little time so that Mackie could consult with her doctors. Stephens told Cheshire to make sure she shows up today at 9:30 a.m. to begin her sentence.
Weeping, Mackie fell into the arms of her husband and children, who swept her out of the courtroom.
Oh they were around...
"If you incarcerate her for every day you can, you cannot punish her more than she has herself."Boo freepin' hoo.
Imagine how they must feel. How HE feels.
Guess he got more education than they knew at the time.
Why is she still married? I didn't get one hint of remorse or repentence from the article (I could have missed it though). Why didn't he dump her for adultery?
God Save America (Please)
That's because society used to (and for many still does) value the purity of a woman more than that of a man. Actually, women used to value their own purity more than men did theirs. Of course, for a lot of women today, they could care less how many times they get knocked up by all the guys in their lives (though the a lot of the guys care). I'm glad I married a woman who valued her purity.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1596310p-1623958c.html
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