MISSOURI – A married Missouri teacher who sent nude photos and explicit sex videos to a 16-year-old student has avoided prison in a jaw-dropping plea deal that has outraged parents, stunned prosecutors, and shaken the quiet town of St. James.
Rikki Lynn Laughlin, 26, a former special education teacher at St. James High School, was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to a single count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
The judge suspended her five-year prison sentence, despite the mountain of evidence prosecutors had gathered over months.
The charges she avoided were staggering: second-degree statutory rape, possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a minor, tampering with a victim, tampering with physical evidence, furnishing pornographic material to a minor, and even second-degree sexual trafficking of a child under 18.
But in a last-minute deal in Grundy County Circuit Court the charges were quietly dropped in exchange for a guilty plea to the lesser felony.