Ex-teacher won't fight charges

A former local substitute teacher and cheerleading coach will not fight the allegation that she had unlawful sexual intercourse with one of her students, a 17-year-old boy.

Kelli Jo Camp, 29, pleaded no contest Wednesday, said Deputy District Attorney Brandon Jebens, the prosecutor on the case, and is due back in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria for sentencing Friday.

She will be sentenced to 365 days in county jail and five years probation, Jebens said.

As a condition of the plea agreement, a charge of grand theft against Camp was dismissed, Jebens said.

The grand theft count was added on July 19 to the complaint against Camp, Jebens said. The original complaint included a single count of unlawful sex with a minor more than three years younger than the defendant.

He declined to discuss the circumstances of the grand theft count, which he said alleged that Camp took at least $400 from Orcutt Union School District.

Jebens said that as part of the plea agreement, Camp agreed to pay restitution to the school district.

Camp, of New Cuyama, was simultaneously a long-term substitute teacher at Cuyama Valley High School, a cheerleading coach at Lakeview Junior High School in Orcutt and a volunteer cheerleading coach with Central Coast Shockwave in Santa Maria.

She was also formerly an instructor at Righetti High School, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.

The alleged victim was a 17-year-old boy who was a student at Cuyama Valley High School.

Camp was arrested May 29 by sheriff's deputies.

Cuyama Valley High School administrators had called the sheriff's department because of a growing concern that Camp may have had inappropriate relationships with her male students.

Camp taught technology, drama and beginning-level math classes at the high school, where she had been employed starting in September 2006. She was released from her employment with the district in early May when administrators learned of the progress of the sheriff's department's investigation, Cuyama Joint Unified School District Superintendent Jan Hensley said.

Hensley said Monday that she was pleased with Camp's no contest plea.

“I'm glad that it's finally over and that she's fessed up,” Hensley said. “I guess justice has been served. When you teach, you have to be above those kinds of things.”

Hensley said the case would not bring about any change in the school district's background check procedures.

“(Camp) had no prior history. Nothing at all came up. Nothing,” Hensley said.

Orcutt Union School District Superintendent Sharon McHolland said Monday that Camp had not been employed by the district since September 2006.

She declined to comment on Camp's plea.

McHolland said she thought the grand theft from the district was an issue of timesheets and work that wasn't accounted for. She said she hadn't been aware that Camp was charged with grand theft in the case.

“We billed Kelli, and she called us and we're working that out,” McHolland said.

Michael Scott, Camp's attorney, said that his client denied doing anything inappropriate financially regarding Orcutt Union School District. However, her agreement to pay the district about $700 “was part of the trade-off,” he said.

Scott said it wasn't cost-effective to have a jury trial over $700.

Camp admitted to having had sex once with the 17-year-old boy at her home, Scott said.

“She's very sorry that it happened,” he said, and added that the act constituted “very poor judgment on her part.”

He said the defense was pleased that the judge did not sentence Camp to prison.

Jebens said that Camp could have been sentenced to close to four years in prison if she was convicted of both the unlawful sex count and the grand theft count.

Whether she will have to register as a sex offender is a topic that will be argued at her sentencing hearing, he said.

Samantha Yale can be reached at 739-2159 or syale@santa

mariatimes.com. Staff Writer Natalie Ragus contributed to this report.

November 27, 2007