Teacher Gets Hand-Slap for Long-Time Sex with Student

(Roseville, California) In April 2007, a 28-year-old teacher at Silverado Middle School, Kelly Christine Spaich, was arrested for allegedly engaging in a six-month sexual relationship with a 16-year-old former student.

Today, Spaich pleaded no contest to felony unlawful sexual intercourse and to misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Placer Superior Court Judge Robert P. McElhany sentenced Spaich to four years of felony probation and ordered her to serve 400 hours of community service. It's not known whether she will be required to register as a sex offender.

Judge McElhany said Spaich is eligible for alternative sentencing and Spaich's attorney, Tim Balcom, confirmed that she would apply for it. It's not clear what the alternative sentencing entails, however, it must be more lenient than probation.

In any event, Judge McElhany was in a charitable mood today.


[Update 07/06/07]

Kelly Spaich's husband weighs in with his angry thoughts in an interview with News10.net.

"By her having some type of probation and not getting any time, she doesn't quite know what she's actually done," said her husband. "To me she's a typical manipulator, a predator."

[ ... ]

Jon Spaich, who did not want News10 to show his face in the interview, said that in early March he became suspicious of his wife. "Gaps of time and expenditures that just didn't make sense, credit cards that didn't make sense, cell phone bills that didn't make sense," he said.

Once he felt his suspicions were on target, he notified police. "I did the right thing. I feel sorry for the (16-year-old) kid, his family, our daughter, my family." Around that same time, he filed for divorce.

Police said the affair may have gone back six months before the arrest, creating more emotional turmoil for the husband. "Our child was four months old and that's something I have a hard time believing and coming to grips with," he said.

"I have lost everything in my life and it's not fair. It's easy for her ... to change her last name and use her maiden name (Kerrigan), when my daughter and I, we can't. My family can't. Our name has been drug through the mud and we had nothing to do with it," he said.

His words ring with heartbreak and despair. Meanwhile, his wife gets an alternative to punishment, which means essentially no punishment.