A female former biology teacher is facing life behind bars for allegedly luring a mentally-ill pupil into having sex with her and live-streaming it.
Disgraced Sandy Carazas-Pinez – a former teacher at a high school in Yonkers, New York State, USA – was arrested on 12th July.
She has been charged with one count of enticing a minor victim to engage in illegal sexual activity and one count of production of child pornography.
According to the investigation, Carazas-Pinez, 34, began texting her victim in November last year.
Her texts became increasingly sexual in nature, and she ended up arranging sexual encounters with the 16-year-old boy, which she live-streamed.
After the boy tried to end their “relationship”, Carazas-Pinez allegedly threatened to “remove school privileges” if he stopped seeing her.
The alleged abuse lasted until February.
She was eventually sacked from her job after school bosses caught wind of what was going on.
If found guilty of both charges, the suspect faces up to life in jail plus 30 years.
The victim’s mother has accused the authorities of “dragging their feet” in investigating the teacher because the boy is black.
She told local media: “It’s the rape of a child with a mental illness.”
The United States Attorney’s Office – Southern District of New York said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 12th July: “CARAZAS-PINEZ was a high school teacher at a school for kindergarten through 12th grade students located in Yonkers, New York (‘School-1’).
“From in or about November 2022 through in or about February 2023, CARAZAS-PINEZ abused her position as a teacher at School-1 by inducing and attempting to induce a student (‘Minor Victim-1’) at School-1 into a sexual relationship with CARAZAS-PINEZ.
“Minor Victm-1 was 16 years old at the time of the abuse.
“CARAZAS-PINEZ singled out Minor Victim-1 for personal attention at School-1.
“In addition, CARAZAS-PINEZ induced Minor Victim-1 to engage in sexual activity with her by leading Minor Victim-1 to believe that they were in a romantic relationship.
“CARAZAS-PINEZ used her personal cellphone to call, text, and video call Minor Victim-1 to arrange sexual encounters and to repeatedly induce Minor Victim-1 to engage in live-streamed sexually explicit conduct while on video calls with CARAZAS-PINEZ.
“In text messages with Minor Victim-1, CARAZAS-PINEZ referred to her sexual encounters with Minor Victim-1 and the live depictions of sexually explicit conduct she induced Minor Victim-1 to create as ‘gifts’.
“CARAZAS-PINEZ also used her personal cellphone to send Minor Victim-1 sexually suggestive photographs of herself along with sexually explicit text messages.
“After sending the photographs and messages, CARAZAS-PINEZ instructed Minor Victim-1 to delete them and inquired repeatedly as to whether Minor Victim-1 had done so.
“To facilitate their sexual encounters outside the premises of School-1, CARAZAS-PINEZ directed Minor Vicitim-1 in text messages to obtain day passes from School-1 to be permitted to leave campus.
“CARAZAS-PINEZ then met Minor Victim-1 at a location near School-1’s campus and drove Minor Victim-1 to another location.
“On multiple occasions, while parked in CARAZAS-PINEZ’s car at various locations, including in or around the Bronx, Yonkers, and Staten Island, New York, CARAZAS-PINEZ engaged in sexual intercourse and other sexual acts, and attempted to do so, with Minor Victim-1.
“CARAZAS-PINEZ, 34, of Bethel, Connecticut, is charged with one count of enticing a minor victim to engage in illegal sexual activity, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, and one count of production of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.”
