Dismissal of felony sex with student charge against former Sarcoxie teacher receives national attention

The Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney's decision to drop a felony sex with a student charge against former Sarcoxie High School teacher Baylee Turner because she married the student has been receiving national attention and none of it good.

The decision to drop the case was made because the "victim," could not be forced to testify against Turner.

In a story headlined "Sexual assault case dropped against Missouri teacher dropped after she marries student," the New York Post mostly referred to the Joplin Globe's account, but then compared the case to the notorious Mary Kay LeTourneau case in Washington where the teacher raped a 12-year-old boy, pleaded guilty to the rape and later had two children fathered by the boy.

While the Post and other online publications say the Turner case is reminiscent of the LeTourneau situation, the charge in the local case was "sex with a student," which is a felony in the state of Missouri, and there were never any allegations of Turner raping an underage student.

The Associated Press account, which stuck to information that had been provided in the Globe story, did not make any comparisons to other cases.

The Law and Crime website started its article in this fashion:

A former high school teacher beat a low-level sex crime charge in Missouri after marrying the student she admittedly had sex with.

 The website, a product of newsman and legal expert Dan Abrams, does a solid job of reporting on Missouri's laws, noting that despite there being no mention of the student's age in court documents, the statutes indicate that he must have been at least 18.

Another section of Mo. law suggests the student was over the age of 18 when the sexual contact in question occurred between them and Turner because “no spousal privilege…shall exist” in a criminal prosecution if there is “an alleged victim under the age of eighteen.

 The Daily Mail went in depth on the story, posting photos of Turner and her husband, but blurring their child's face in the photos.