Sexual Predator or Vulnerable Victim?
Teacher fled to Mexico, said strong-armed by teen lover.
Dec. 11, 2007— -- The 25-year-old former Nebraska teacher arrested last month in Mexicali, Mexico, said in federal court Monday that she was strong-armed into leaving the country by her controlling and abusive teenage lover, a former student of hers.
"He used to threaten me, like if I ever left him he would kill me," Kelsey Peterson testified before the judge, according to an audio clip posted online by ABC News' Omaha affiliate KETV. "He left bruises all over my arms and across my chest at times when he would get angry with me," Peterson said, "so he was very much the dominant man in the relationship."
Late last month, Peterson, a former math teacher and basketball coach, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of crossing the border to have sex with a minor. She has been incarcerated at the Cass County jail and has yet to face state charges tied to the same incident, which began with a missing person's report in late October.
Peterson argued yesterday that she was not a flight risk, asking the judge if she could be released under certain conditions to her grandmother so she could start the process of facing state charges. The judge denied Peterson's request.
James Martin Davis, Peterson's attorney, has also continually raised questions about the age of the boy, whose undocumented immigrant status has prevented his return to the United States despite the ongoing federal and state prosecutions involving him. Davis was unavailable for comment today but reiterated his client's claims that it was the boy who was the aggressor after the hearing Monday.
He also took aim again at the boy's age, which he has claimed is older than 13. "So do you think he's still 13?" Davis asked reporters outside the federal courthouse Monday, according to video posted on KETV.
Joe Stecher, the United States attorney in Nebraska whose office is prosecuting the Peterson case, told ABC News that prosecutors have seen no evidence to suggest the boy is anything but 13 years old. "There's been a lot of rhetoric" on the matter, Stecher said.
