Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 17, 1993 TAG: 9304170168
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY MARK WEAVER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
TEACHER WHO SEDUCED BOY GETS 3 1/2 YEARS IN PRISON
Her obsessive attraction to a 14-year-old boy led former schoolteacher Darlene Dudley to personal ruin and then, on Friday, to prison.To the very end, Dudley denied she had an affair with an eighth-grade student at Gildersleve Middle School, saying she was raped and then framed by a family desperate to keep its own troubles hidden.
First the 20-year veteran teacher lost her job, then her teaching certificate, her car and her savings. Finally, Dudley was reduced to living on donations that accompanied letters from television viewers who saw her on the "Donahue" show in January.
Unable to afford therapy, Dudley said she managed to cope in recent days with the help of free samples of an anti-depressant drug provided by a physician.
She might have avoided prison by accepting a plea agreement but instead chose trial last December. She was convicted on two counts of carnal knowledge of a child.
At her sentencing Friday, she again denied her guilt.
Circuit Judge Robert Frank, who sentenced Dudley, 43, to the maximum of 20 years in prison, suspended all but 3 1/2 years of the sentence.
As a result, Dudley will spend about six to eight months in jail, then face therapy and a lengthy probation, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Rick Kerns.
"The evidence against you, Ms. Dudley, is overwhelming," Frank said. "Reality has eluded you, Ms. Dudley, and that's unfortunate because you're a bright woman and evidently a competent teacher."
Her attorney said Dudley would appeal, and Frank set bond at $15,000.
In court Friday, Dudley took issue with a psychiatric evaluation ordered by Frank that concluded she was obsessed and likely to attempt to contact the boy again.
Dudley has maintained that the boy raped her during a visit to her apartment in March 1992. He later alleged improper sexual activity after she threatened to report verbal and physical child abuse by his stepfather, Dudley said.
"I know that [the boy] is very sorry he brought these charges against me," said Dudley. "When he was with me, he was in a safe, loving and caring environment."
But her claims did not jibe with her actions, the judge said. In the weeks after the alleged rape, Dudley sent the boy $100, some flowers and a card, and wrote a note to his mother saying that his classroom performance and behavior were exemplary.
She also sent him notes and love letters, one apparently celebrating the anniversary of their first sexual encounter.
The boy, now 15, was a student in Dudley's eighth-grade English and literature classes. He testified in December that they had sex up to 25 times after she seduced him at her Denbigh town house in fall 1991.
He said she became obsessed with him, began harassing his family and frightened him with wild claims about having a venereal disease and becoming pregnant.
The boy and his family have moved out of state. He is performing poorly in school and has been suspended for disciplinary problems, Kerns said.
Authorities have investigated Dudley's allegations of abuse in the boy's home and found no evidence to support them. Kerns blamed the boy's problems on publicity surrounding the case.
Dudley told the judge Friday that she had planned to teach another year before entering law school to pursue a career in juvenile justice or a related field.
"My whole life has been teaching and working with kids," Dudley said. "I work best with teen-agers nobody else can work with."
She broke into tears as bailiffs led her from the courtroom.