Click here for the most recent Plains Feeder post
about Kelsey and Fernando.
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Kelsey and Fernando for a 25 year old female teacher,
Kelsey Peterson, and her under-age lover. Kelsey, a teacher with the
Lexington, Nebraska Public Schools is a fugitive from an arrest warrant accusing her of sexual impropriety with, and kidnapping of a 13 year old eighth-grade student,
Fernando Rodriguez. It is believed that Ms Peterson and her little latin lover may be headed for Mexico. From the
Kearney Hub:
Monday, Rodriguez’s mother and sister told police they had received a call from him between 1 and 2 a.m. Saturday saying he was in Grand Island with Peterson. The student also sent a text message to his brother saying he was with Peterson and he is OK, and the student’s aunt said he had asked her on the phone if a visa or passport is needed to enter Mexico.
The warrant says that Lexington Superintendent Todd Chessmore seized Peterson’s school-issued laptop, and officers found several e-mails and letters that say she loves Rodriguez and that she thought he also loved her.
Peterson’s father also gave several letters that were found inside her home to the Lexington Police Department. The letters were written by Rodriguez from the Nebraska Boys’ Ranch in Alliance and call Peterson his “Baby Gurl.” One letter also says that, “his relationship with her is just not about the sex.”
The story is titillating newspaper readers all over outstate Nebraska. I'll be watching the
Lexington Clipper-Herald, the
Beatrice Daily Sun, and the
Kearney Hub, among
others. You can read the lurid arrest warrant documents (pdf)
here. So far I only see one blogger on the case, the
Blog of Hilarity, where it is pointed out that Ms. Peterson is
no Debra LaFave. For tisk-tisking and discussion,
Fox News has this forum, and
WebSleuths has one here about the runaway chico and the chub. I'm guessing they won't be caught soon.
It looks like the two illicit lovers intend to flee to Mexico. If she has no papers, Kelsey will have to make an illegal border crossing. Bucking the tide of
un-papered Mexicans trying to get into the US in time for the coming amnesty won't be easy. I look for her to end up in a shallow grave out in some Mexamericanadian desert.
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Addendum: The
Nebraska Boy's Ranch where Fernando Rodriguez was living is a place for young men who are wards of the State. Parents can commit their kids to this dude ranch reform school, but most of their
customers are
on the state's tab for crimes we used to call juvenile delinquency.
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Some blog reactions:
- Legal Pub suggests this might be a form of sex education.
- Pat at BelchSpeak says "If only we could figure out a way for all illegal aliens to take a child rapist with them to Mexico..."
- The various crime blogs have picked up the story, e.g. MyCrimeSpace.
- Protein Wisdom links to video and a related topical "Lolito" lyrics contest.
- Sista at Hello, Negro asks "What is up with White female teachers and these little boys?"
- Merri muses that she wasn't interested in 8th grade boys when she was 25.
Update:
From the AP:
The car owned by a female middle school teacher believed to be on the run with a 13-year-old boy has crossed the California border into Mexico, a police investigator said Friday.
Those Border Patrol cats, always on the ball. The report doesn't say who was in the car. I still suspect teacher is taking a dirt nap by now.
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Update: From the AP: Teacher, Student Arrested in Mexico.
A female schoolteacher and the 13-year-old boy she allegedly ran away with have been arrested in Mexico, a prosecutor said Saturday.
Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old sixth-grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, and the boy had been apprehended.
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Peterson, a sixth-grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, fled with the boy after police began investigating whether the pair had an intimate relationship, authorities said. Court documents said the boy was last seen Oct. 26.
A judge issued an arrest warrant Monday charging Peterson with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Peterson also faces federal charges, including transporting a minor across state lines or a foreign border for sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher said. Those charges were filed Thursday.
"The FBI is doing what we need to do to make the Mexican authorities aware that she is wanted," Stecher said.
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Peterson's car crossed into Mexico on Tuesday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, Lexington police said. The car's license plate was captured by an automated system that scans the plates of all vehicles passing through the entry point.
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[Fernando's aunt] believed Peterson gave the boy a cell phone without his family's knowledge so she could reach him more easily. Messages left on a cell phone for a Kelsey Peterson of Lexington were not returned.
Lexington Schools Superintendent Todd Chessmore said he placed Peterson on paid administrative leave on Oct. 25.
She will be lucky if the Mexican officials send her back to the US. I wonder if Fernando will return for Peterson's trial. Won't they need him to convict her? Or perhaps the poor 'baby Gurl' just needs some more lessons in avoiding the consequences of her actions. Its a good thing the
FBI and
Mighty Joe Stecher, the US Attorney here are on the case. He's the man that made sure child rapist
John Monetti didn't benefit from Nebraska's notoriously
soft on pedophiles justice system.
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Update: Monday, 11/05/07: Kelsey Peterson is now
held on federal charges in California. This is good. There is no need to let some bleeding heart Nebraska judge let her escape life's lessons.
Kelsey Peterson, the former Lexington Nebraska middle school teacher who plead guilty to having a sexual relationship with a student has been sentenced to 6 years in federal prison. Kelsey began molesting the male student when he was just 12 years old. She will start doing her time, less the year she has already been incarcerated, at a women's prison in Pekin, Illinois.
