Former native superintendent, convicted of intercourse crimes years in the past, despatched to jail

WINDHAM, Ohio (WJW) – A disgraced former native college superintendent, who was convicted greater than 4 years in the past of intercourse crimes towards two college students, is lastly behind the partitions of a state jail.

Attorneys for 40-year-old Laura Amero, the previous superintendent of the Windham Village Colleges, had fought for years over the strenuous objection of courtroom officers in Portage County to permit her to stay free on bond as they appealed her conviction.

The case started to unfold in 2019, when Windham police have been contacted by a involved father or mother and discovered that in Amero’s earlier job as principal of Windham Excessive Faculty in 2017, she pursued unlawful sexual relationships with two 16-year-old college students.

A police officer then recorded a dialog with Amero, when he questioned her about an intimate video of her that was being handed round by college students.

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On the tape, the officer mentioned, “Within the final three days, it has come up and there supposedly is a video.”

“That’s what I heard too,” she responded.

“If there may be and it’s you, you’re higher off to get in entrance of it than you might be to…” the officer mentioned.

“I heard there was a video too and that he confirmed to individuals on the basketball staff,” Amero mentioned.

Through the recorded dialog in 2019, Amero initially claimed she was not the lady proven within the video and denied any wrongdoing.

However the officer suggested her there was ample proof of her unlawful relationship with one of many 16-year-old boys on social media and in textual content messages.

“You despatched him some photos and he despatched some again and that finally wound up with you calling him all the way down to the workplace and [deleted],” the officer mentioned. “I believe it in all probability occurred, I can inform by your eyes and the way in which you’re speaking to me, and it was a second of weak spot. I’m positive.”

Two days later, Amero admitted that the allegation concerning the sexual encounter with the scholar in her workplace was true.

“I simply want it to go away, so if I must resign on the finish of the yr, I’ll (deleted) resign. I’ll get out. It was a weak second, it was silly,” she mentioned.

“It’s a compulsory reporting factor, identical to we have now on the college,” the officer responded.

“I’m not a predator, I’m not,” Amero mentioned.

When confronted with all the proof, Amero determined to plead responsible in November 2019 to prices of sexual battery and sexual imposition, for having intercourse with the 16-year-old boy and making an attempt to have intercourse with one other scholar.

Earlier than Amero was sentenced in February 2020, she informed the courtroom, “I by no means imagined I might damage my youngsters, however I did. I allowed traces to be crossed that ought to have by no means been crossed.”

Amero, who was pregnant on the time, was sentenced to 10 years in jail and was notified that upon her launch, she could be categorised a Tier III intercourse offender for all times, requiring in-person verification each 90 days.

On that day, Amero mentioned, “I hope that at some point these households will forgive me and perceive that I really by no means, ever wished to harm their youngsters. I’m so sorry and I’m so sorry from the underside of my coronary heart to those victims and their households.”

However as an alternative of going to jail, Amero and her attorneys fought to permit her to stay free on bond, after she filed an attraction claiming that the 10-year sentence was too harsh.

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The eleventh District Courtroom of Appeals rejected her attraction on March 18, 2024, discovering that Amero abused her energy as an authority determine and created life-long trauma for the victims.

On April 17, 2024, the now-40-year-old Amero was lastly despatched to the Ohio Reformatory for Girls at Marysville.

Nevertheless, that isn’t the ultimate chapter within the story, as a result of Amero has filed an attraction with the Ohio Supreme Courtroom.

She requested the courtroom to remain her sentence, proceed her $350,000 bond and maintain her on digital monitoring till the attraction may very well be heard, however the courtroom denied that request.

State jail information point out that Amero is not going to be up for parole till March 2034, some 17 years after the crimes she dedicated at Windham Excessive Faculty. When she is launched from jail as a Tier III intercourse offender, she will be able to by no means work in any discipline of schooling.

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