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Teacher Back in Jail on Allegations She Was at Boy's Home.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 1/24/03 | Laura Lynch-German

Posted on 01/27/2003 2:27:57 PM PST by marshmallow

West Bend - A 31-year-old high school teacher was jailed and slapped with a new charge Friday, a day after authorities say she was found in bed with her former student in violation of a court order that forbids her from seeing the boy.

The 17-year-old boy was himself charged as an adult with misdemeanor obstructing justice and felony bail-jumping charges. The first charge accuses him of lying to police over the bed incident. The second refers to a condition of his release in an earlier drug case - a condition that he not engage in criminal activity.

West Bend West High School teacher Carla Paulsrud had been on the lam since Thursday afternoon, when the boy's stepfather alerted authorities that she was at the home. She turned herself in aroundnoon Friday.

Paulsrud had been charged Wednesday with five counts of sexual assault of a student on accusations of having more than 50 sexual encounters with the teenager, beginning when he was 16, in her SUV in the school parking lot, at her home on her husband's bowling nights and elsewhere.

She was released from custody Wednesday night on a $10,000 signature bond and ordered not to have any contact with the boy.

But according to the criminal complaint:

She was picked up outside the Washington County Jail by the 17-year-old and a friend and then went to her former student's Town of West Bend home. The stepfather found the pair in the boy's bedroom Thursday morning and, when he saw the woman again at the home later in the afternoon, called the Sheriff's Department.

Paulsrud and the boy then left over the stepfather's protests, reports say. The boy was pulled over in West Bend later, but Paulsrud was not with him.

The boy "denied being with Paulsrud, stated he did not see her and his parents were lying," the complaint says.

When a reporter called the 17-year-old's home Thursday, a man hung up without commenting. The teen's mother watched her son's court appearance Friday and would not comment.

Circuit Judge Patrick Faragher ordered the news media Friday not to identify the boy, saying that despite the adult charges, he is still considered a child and a victim in the sexual assault case. The judge warned that naming the boy would result in reporters being barred from future court sessions.

When Paulsrud appeared in court Friday afternoon to face the new bail-jumping charge, her lawyer said reporters were to blame for the now-suspended teacher's actions.

Lawyer Steven Kohn said Paulsrud was initially held in jail Wednesday night because she had an unpaid traffic ticket.

"The only person she knew to call was a young man, not the victim, your honor, and he said he would help," Kohn said, adding that the boy was called by the other person.

Paulsrud, in the meantime, was able to pay for the ticket with her credit card, Kohn said. She knew the media was waiting for her outside the jail "like a wolf pack ready to pounce," he said.

Before she could call for a cab, she was ushered out of the jail into the throng of lights and cameras, Kohn said.

"She literally ran into the cold night, and then she heard a honk," he said. "A vehicle pulled up and an individual and the victim were in the car. . . . She then made an ill-advised decision, and she got in the car.

"She felt she had nowhere else to go . . . that that was the only port in the storm."

Kohn said she went to the boy's home and had his parents' permission to stay. He said Paulsrud and the boy did not have sex that night.

He asked the judge to set a signature bond or a modest cash bail.

Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens urged a significant cash bail.

"Two days ago, she promised the court to follow the conditions of her bond, one of which was not to see the boy," Martens said. "It took her virtually no time at all to violate her bond and break her promise to this court."

The judge agreed.

"She willfully violated her bond the same day it was set, deliberately and immediately violated it and violated it in a way that echoes the very crime she is charged with," Faragher said.

He said that the boy was a child under the law and that his willingness to help Paulsrud was not an issue.

"To see that boy as a port in the storm, as defense counsel said, is a remarkably bad choice," Faragher said.

He then set bail for Paulsrud at $10,000. She remained in the Washington County Jail on Friday night.

About an hour after her court appearance, the 17-year-old appeared before Faragher to face his new charges.

Defense lawyer Paul Czisny said his client fancied himself in love with Paulsrud.

"I think foolishness is kind of a hallmark of being a 17-year-old," Czisny said. "It is not surprising that a young man who sees himself as being in love would be protective of the woman he loves."

Prosecutor Martens said the boy showed the same willingness to violate his bail as Paulsrud.

"As Carla Paulsrud walked out of jail, he picked her up, took her to his parents' home and kept her there," Martens said.

But the judge said that while the boy had apparently made a mistake, "he is not Ms. Paulsrud. He is a victim here."

He then set bail at $1,000.

If convicted of Friday's charges and the earlier drug charges, the teenager could face more than 12 years in prison.

Paulsrud could face 50 years in prison on the sexual assault charges and10 years on the bail-jumping charge.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:
I love her lawyer's excuse; "it was all the media's fault."
1 posted on 01/27/2003 2:27:57 PM PST by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Teachers have gone insane.

2 posted on 01/27/2003 2:40:29 PM PST by moyden
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To: marshmallow
I think this "boy" is in Special Ed.

Where are we getting these teachers nowadays: women who are willing to demean themselves and molest a student a la Mary Kay LaTournneau in Washington State? And men who think nothing of engaging in oral sex in drama class under the stage -- a la Ms. Lewinsky and her high school drama coach whom she followed to Oregon.

I'm sure there have always been screwballs out there who did these things, but we seem to have way more than our share recently. The kids are ripe for the picking with the highly sexualized society we have created, and the teachers have no common sense or decency.

3 posted on 01/27/2003 2:43:10 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: marshmallow
Paulsrud had been charged Wednesday with five counts of sexual assault of a student on accusations of having more than 50 sexual encounters with the teenager..

Her poor husband. Does't help when they mention this in every article. Where was he when all this was going on I wonder.

Maybe I'm going soft but isn't a 50 yr max sentence a little high when hanging out with a 17y/o boy? Although, her still sleeping with him after being released isn't helping her case.

4 posted on 01/27/2003 2:49:50 PM PST by Aaron0617
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To: marshmallow
Paulsrud had been charged Wednesday with five counts of sexual assault of a student on accusations of having more than 50 sexual encounters with the teenager, beginning when he was 16, in her SUV in the school parking lot, at her home on her husband's bowling nights and elsewhere.

Now that's just the last straw. Not bowling nights!

5 posted on 01/27/2003 2:51:00 PM PST by laredo44
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To: marshmallow


Sad thing is, she's really not that bad looking. Typically when you hear about cases like this, it's some old hag who hasn't had any in years preying on some young boy who'll get it anywhere he can. While not model material, I have a hard time believing that this woman couldn't have picked up some decent guy her own age. What a sick, sick woman.
6 posted on 01/27/2003 2:58:02 PM PST by Arthalion
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To: marshmallow
Those damn SUVs again.
7 posted on 01/27/2003 3:51:55 PM PST by cruiserman
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To: Arthalion
It would seem that if this boy and teacher have been together 50 times and he is still enjoying himself, that he is not much of a victim at all. The hypocracy of threatening to put a woman in jail for fifty years for sleeping with the kid while they themselves are threatening to put him in jail for 12 is amazing. So far the only victims I see are these two people being tyrannized by the state for enjoying each other. To the extent that her behavior is unacceptable professionally, perhaps she should be fired. If she is cheating on her husband, she is an adulterer. Last I checked, these were both civil infractions, not crimes. So what if she's older than him. They are obviously quite physically compatable. I see no crime. This whole notion that a seventeen year old is assaulted when he gets lucky with a 31 year old is absurd. A seventeen year old will screw anything. Will we start putting inanimate objects in jail and referring to him as a victim of those inanimate objects?

When he is raped and killed in jail is when a crime will have been committed. Putting her away for fifty years will also be a tragedy.

I read a story about a couple in wisconsin. The boy was nineteen and the girl was seventeen. When the girl got pregnant, they went to city hall to get a marriage licsense. The boy was prosecuted for a felony and put in prison. The boy was never allowed to see his child except under supervision and must register as a sex offender wherever he lives for the rest of his life. That is a crime. It is often said that the Virgin Mary was a young teenager. Shall we indict The Lord?

8 posted on 01/27/2003 4:28:03 PM PST by HaveGunWillTravel
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To: HaveGunWillTravel
Shall we indict The Lord?
i don't understand the analogy. Can you explain ?
9 posted on 01/27/2003 5:04:36 PM PST by stylin19a (it's cold because it's too hot...- Global Warming-ists explanation for cold wave)
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To: HaveGunWillTravel
I agree with everything you say. But....If it were a 31 year old male teacher and a 17 year old girl...would you feel the same?
10 posted on 01/27/2003 5:10:57 PM PST by NeonKnight
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To: stylin19a
I don't know that it is an analogy. I'm just pointing out that, under our law regarding age of consent for minors, assuming Mary was under 18, the immaculate conception constituted the crime of statutory rape. I was trying to avoid coming anywhere near blaspheming by not coming right out with it.
11 posted on 01/27/2003 8:36:32 PM PST by HaveGunWillTravel
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To: NeonKnight
I agree with everything you say. But....If it were a 31 year old male teacher and a 17 year old girl...would you feel the same?

I think that there is a very big difference between a man having a woman and a woman "having" a man. I also think that the dynamics of seduction are very different. Even if the 17 year old were a girl and she was doing the seducing, she is still seducing the man to "take" her, not to allow her to "take" him. No matter what, it is the man who "takes" the woman. (This is how I feel.) I think that the age of consent laws were written with young women in mind and that our PC culture requires us to pretend that a young man getting lucky with an older woman can somehow be considered to be his "victimization". Any distinction between boys and girls is prohibited. Do I think a seventeen year old girl posesses the capacity to consent? Yes. Do I like the idea of a 17 year old girl being seduced by or seducing a 31 year old man? No. I don't approve of it in the case of the older woman either, but I find it far less disturbing. In either case there may be a forgivable set of circumstances. There would just be far fewer in the case of the man being the 31 year old. In either case it is easy to have no respect for the 31 year old. I am far less inclined to forgive the 31 year old man.

12 posted on 01/27/2003 9:01:43 PM PST by HaveGunWillTravel
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