Ex-teacher gets 5 years in prison
She pleaded guilty to sexual assault of child
A former teacher who had sexual contact with her 11-yearold student, claiming she told the “chronically depressed” boy she was in love with him to make him happy, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison, plus seven more on extended supervision.
Katherine R. Gonzalez, 25, of Milwaukee, pleaded guilty in August to second-degree sexual assault of a child, a charge filed against her in February. She was formerly on the staff at Atlas Preparatory Academy in Bay View.
Gonzalez, who said she has been getting treatment while out on bail since March, tearfully apologized to the boy and his family — who were not present in court — “for my unthinkable actions.” She said she has been having many fewer flashbacks about her own sexual assault while she was in college.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Torbenson said the boy’s mother had taken his cellphone away for disciplinary reasons in February when it buzzed with messages from Gonzalez at 3:30 a.m. one Monday. The nature of the messages prompted her to go directly to police, and Gonzalez was arrested and charged. Judge Mark Sanders said that despite her lack of any criminal record and otherwise good character, Gonzalez’s “predacious” behavior and gradual grooming made the case very serious, even though the relationship stopped short of sexual intercourse. He said the sentence was meant to warn others to exercise better judgment if they begin to go down such a path.
Sanders said he wished he had heard from the boy or his family to see how the experience affected him, but ventured it was highly likely to have a negative impact on the boy’s relationships as he gets older.
According to the criminal complaint:
The victim told police he and Gonzalez were communicating over Snapchat on Feb. 25, a Saturday. She picked him up in her car and they kissed, and she had had the boy touch her genital area over her clothes. After they got to Gonzalez’s Bay View apartment, they watched the movie “Deadpool,” and she rubbed her hand over the boy’s groin and had him touch her breasts over her clothing, the boy told police. They also kissed, he said.
Gonzalez referenced that and him touching her “down there” in the messages that were seen by the boy’s mother two nights later.
As part of the plea agreement, Torbenson recommended an unspecified prison term. Defense attorney Richard Hart said a minimal prison term would be sufficient because a psychologist had found Gonzalez to be a very low risk to re-offend.
Gonzalez was the latest in a string of female teachers convicted of sexual assault of their students in the area. In June, former reading specialist April Novak, 32, got two years in prison for an affair with a 16-year-old boy at Menomonee Falls High School.
Former New Berlin West High School teacher Sara M. Domres, 29, was sentenced in December to two years for having sex with one of her students, also in 2015.
Also in December, Elizabeth Dillett, a 31-year-old former teacher from Franklin, was sentenced to two years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a student.