A former Spanish teacher at Capital High School accused of having a sexual relationship with a student pleaded guilty Monday to contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Michelle Elaine Ball, 31, of St. Albans, entered into a deal with prosecutors on Monday that dropped more severe charges, which she was indicted on earlier this year.
Police had said Ball began smoking marijuana with a teenage student and would take him to the movies and on trips. The relationship eventually turned sexual, according to previous allegations.
On Monday, Ball admitted only to providing alcohol to the student in his home on a day when they both should have been in school and they arranged to meet, said Assistant Kanawha Prosecutor Zoe Shavers.
She faces up to a year in jail for the misdemeanor offense when Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky sentences her on Dec. 1.
Ball had been charged with first-degree sexual abuse and sexual abuse by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust. But Shavers said Monday that Ball should have never faced the first-degree abuse charge because the minor involved was over the age of 16 - the age West Virginia law requires to give consent.
Prosecutors dropped the other abuse charge as part of a deal after meeting with the victim and his mother.
"He is an adult now but we did contact his mother, because he was a minor at the time," said Shavers. The two agreed with the deal prosecutors offered Ball to avoid going through a trial, Shavers said.
Ball was suspended without pay from her job two years ago, when she was originally charged by police with having a sexual relationship with a student. That charge was dropped on a technicality, but prosecutors indicted her in May on new charges.
Shavers said that prosecutors plan to forward information about Ball's case to the agency that issues teacher's licenses in the state, "So they can take whatever action they deem necessary."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.