Florida Teacher Accused of Sex with Boy - Updated

(Pasco County, Florida)

A former teacher accused of having sex with a student is in trouble again after she was caught asking the student on Facebook to drop the charges.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office says the victim told detectives on July 5 Maryann Verdi contacted him on Facebook through one of his friend's accounts and tried to convince him to drop the charges against her.

When detectives talked with the victim's friend, she told them that while she was at Verdi's home, Verdi asked to use her Facebook account to contact the boy. She told her "it wasn't a good idea to do that", but Verdi did it anyway.

For doing it anyway, Verdi now faces a charge of witness tampering.

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Florida Teacher Accused of Sex with Male Student
[Previous 10/27/11 post]
(Pasco County, Florida) A 40-year-old teacher formerly with Pasco County Schools, Maryann Verdi, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 15-year-old male student.

Verdi was arrested yesterday on charges of lewd or lascivious battery and unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

The victim told an investigator that he had a sexual encounter with Verdi in December 2009, when he was 15 and Verdi was 38, an arrest report states. She was a teacher at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey at the time.

He and Verdi had a second encounter in Verdi's vehicle on Oct. 3, the day she submitted her resignation as a teacher at Sunlake High in Land O' Lakes where she was in trouble over issues unrelated to the sex charges.

Verdi was booked into custody at the Land O'Lakes Jail with bail set at $20,000.