Former teacher gets prison time for failing to comply with sex offender registry
Published 1:04 pm Monday, November 23, 2020
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
For the first time since she was charged with committing a sex act with a student almost four years ago, former Davie High English teacher Jessica Welch Greene will serve active time.
Greene, now 31, first appeared in Davie Superior Court in September 2017, to answer to charges that she had an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Greene was married and had a small child when the relationship took place.
Grady McClamrock, her attorney during that court appearance, told the judge Greene was in an abusive relationship with her husband and had postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter.
She received three years probation and had to register as a sex offender for 30 years. One of the conditions attached to the sex offender registry is that while she is allowed to be on social media, she must disclose to her probation officer all information attached to her social media accounts, including the name she uses on the accounts. She was also not supposed to be on premises with anyone under the age of 18.
In 2018, Greene’s probation officer, Mandy Murphy, learned Greene was dropping off and picking her daughter up at Advance Dance and that Greene had social media accounts she had not told Murphy about. In 2019, an investigation into her online activity revealed at least 16 additional online accounts that Murphy was not told about.
In last week’s session of Superior Court, Assistant DA Rob Taylor told Judge Mark Klass that Greene had several social media accounts using various aliases, and she was using the accounts to “contact individuals but not juveniles or anyone under the age of 18. There was certainly promiscuous activity on the social media accounts,” he said.
He said Greene did not take seriously the requirements of the sex offender registry.
“Ms. Murphy and I have had many, many long talks about this. Ms. Greene has to abide by the same terms and conditions as everyone else. If she continues with this type of behavior, she’s going to go to jail for a very long time,” Taylor said.
Greene’s attorney David Freedman told Klass that Greene has had treatment at an inpatient facility, suffers from a “great deal of anxiety” and is taking the matter “very seriously.” Because of Covid restrictions regarding the number of people who could be present in the courtroom, Greene’s family was waiting outside for her case to be heard.
On a charge of failure to register online identifiers, Klass sentenced Greene to 15 to 27 months in prison, suspended 24 months. She must have a mental health evaluation and was given credit for one day she spent in jail. On five additional similar charges, Greene was given the same sentence, each at the expiration of the previous one.
On a felony probation violation charge, Greene received an active sentence of 90 days. At the completion of the sentence, her probation will be terminated.
Twelve counts of failure to register online identifiers were dismissed, as was one charge of a sex offender on child premises.