Richardson Teacher Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison For Having Sex with Teen

A former Richardson teacher was sentenced to 12 year sin prison in a Collin County courtroom today. Roger Kessler had plead guilty to the felony offense of Sexual Assault of a Child. He could have received up to 20 years in prison. The victim in the case was a 15 year old boy. Kessler admitted to the police he had met the boy online and had met him for 5 sexual encounters. He also admitted to the police that he has the HIV virus and had not disclosed this to the minor.

This case left little options for the defense.  Since the defendant was caught leaving the child’s house and showed police his cell phone which had explicit text exchanges there wasn’t much the attorney’s could do to fight guilt. The only issue was punishment and the defense choose to conduct an open plea to the judge. At an open plea the defendant pleads guilty and lets the judge decide punishment. The judge will often order a pre-sentence report that is prepared by the probation department.

At the plea hearing the prosecution can call witnesses if they desire to do so or introduce other evidence such as the text messages. The defense can call character witnesses, experts and the defendant himself. In this case the defendant did not have a previous criminal record. However the fact that he was HIV positive and hid that fact from the victim and was 29 year solder than the victim weighed heavily against him.