EX-TEACHER SENT TO PRISON FOR RENEWING RELATIONSHIP WITH STUDENT

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 10:42 PM
By Randy Ludlow

The Columbus Dispatch
A girl’s mother begged Judge James Henson of Richland County Common Pleas Court to send Dustin Powers, a former middle-school teacher, to prison for having sex with her 14-year-old daughter.

Henson, however, thought an apologetic Powers deserved a second chance and placed him on probation.

Now, Henson acknowledges a mistake in setting aside the pleas of prosecutors and the victim’s mother in September.

Powers, 36, appeared before Henson today and admitted to again having sex with the Mansfield girl, now 15.

Henson revoked Powers’ probation and sent him to prison for four years on his prior sexual battery conviction.

“I wish this hadn’t happened,” the judge said. “I think I did the right thing at the time; it just turned out he was the wrong person.”

Mansfield police detective Jeff Shook said authorities received a tip that Powers and the girl had renewed a relationship that began in 2005 and continued through last spring.

A warrant was obtained to search Powers’ former home, where officers found evidence of sexual activity, Shook said. Police are awaiting the results of DNA tests before filing new charges.

Powers met the girl at Simpson Middle School, where he was a physical-education teacher. He was charged last summer and pleaded guilty to sexual battery. He also surrendered his teaching license.

Warning Powers that he would go to prison if he violated probation, Henson gave him a suspended four-year sentence and placed him on community control for five years.

“He was very contrite. He realized he messed up,” the judge said.

“Based on a lack of a (criminal) record … and he lost his job, his wife, his family and everything, I thought I would give him a chance to start living again and he would be OK. He proved otherwise.”

Henson said he regrets not originally sending the sex offender to prison. “But I can’t second-guess myself.”

rludlow@dispatch.com

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