YAKIMA, Wash. -- from www.yakima-herald.com -Teacher Michele Taylor's text messages to two of her high school students were at first professional, but the exchanges continued until she had sex with one of them, a deputy prosecutor told jurors Thursday.
"These text messages evolved into something non-professional, more and more personal and disturbing," deputy prosecutor Sam Chen said on the opening day of testimony at Taylor's trial on charges of sexual misconduct and immoral communication with a minor.
But defense attorney Ulvar Klein of Yakima said the 31-year-old East Valley High School teacher was exchanging text messages with the students for legitimate reasons, as part of her effort to help them through school. One boy was 16 years old at the time; the other, 15.
The younger student reported the messages -- including a suggestive picture of Taylor and a report that she had had sex with the older teen -- as a way to get back at her, Klein said. He became upset that she had shared information about their conversations with other people, including her husband, her attorney said.
"The last thing she heard from the (younger student) is, 'I can walk into school tomorrow and ruin your life,'" Klein said.
Both sides presented opening arguments in a trial that is expected to stretch into mid-June.
A panel of six men and eight women, including two alternates, is hearing the case in Yakima County Superior Court. Judge Michael McCarthy is presiding over the trial.
Taylor, an East Valley physical education teacher since 2004, was charged in September following an investigation by Yakima County sheriff's detectives.
Prosecutors allege that she exchanged more than 400 text messages with the boys between March and June 2009.
School officials alerted the sheriff's office after the younger student came forward.
In opening arguments Thursday, Chen described two sides to Taylor -- the first as a wife and mother of triplets, the second as a teacher who targeted the boys while entrusted to educate them.
"The testimony will show she abused that trust," Chen said.
Klein sought to focus on inconsistencies in the statements from the two boys, raising questions about their credibility. He also countered any suggestion that Taylor was a predator who stalked the boys. She was just trying to stay in touch with students who needed her help, he said.
"If you're Michele Taylor and you get a text, you respond. You don't cut off your students just because the 3 o'clock bell has rung," Klein said.
Chen said Taylor some-how obtained the younger student's phone number and began texting him. It was unclear how the communication started between her and the older student, but Chen said a third East Valley High School student is expected to testify that Taylor obtained his phone and placed her number on it, too.
Later -- apparently as the investigation was starting -- she told that student, "Lose my number," Chen said.
Klein said Taylor put her cell phone number on the 15-year-old student's new phone while he was showing it off for Taylor and a group of students in the gym.
Klein said Taylor tried to help that student because he was having a hard time at home. The text messages with the older boy didn't increase until near the end of the 2008-2009 school year, when students are trying to arrange next year's class schedule, he said.
Taylor's husband and her father are expected to testify that she was home on the night she is accused of having sex with the older student in the back seat of her pickup at the Kmart parking lot outside Yakima.
Chen said Taylor invited the boy to the parking lot. Klein said he called her.
The boy was reluctant to describe the encounter, the prosecutor said. "He felt ashamed and didn't want to tell anybody about what happened at the Kmart," Chen said.
Klein challenged numer-ous aspects of the boy's account, pointing out that he was a strong high school athlete and that he should have been able to resist Taylor's alleged advances.
Questioned in June 2009, the boy first said he thought the sex had occurred in February, but later changed his statement based on phone records to say it happened in May, Klein said.
Both boys are expected to testify for the prosecution, as well as representatives of two cell phone companies.
The state's first witnesses were East Valley School District Superintendent John Schieche and Assistant Superintendent Mike Mess-
enger. Both answered questions about the school's policy for teacher interaction with students, which discourages staff members from being alone with students or interacting with them outside of school hours.
Taylor faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the felony misconduct charge. She is also contesting the school district's effort to fire her over the same allegations.
