Ex-Kennedale teacher gets five years in prison for having sex with students

By Deanna Boyd

dboyd@star-telegram.com

This report includes descriptions of sexual behavior.

FORT WORTH -- Former Kennedale High School teacher Brittni Colleps was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty Friday evening for having multiple sexual encounters with five of her students.

The jury took less than three hours to sentence Colleps to five years in prison and less than an hour to convict her on 16 counts of improper relationship between an educator and student. The 28-year-old mother was not assessed a fine. She faced up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each of the counts.

Colleps will have to serve a quarter of the sentence before she is eligible for parole.

After the verdict was read Colleps was ordered into custody and her bond revoked.

All of the students were 18 at the time of the sexual encounters, which occurred in the spring of 2011.

After hearing closing arguments during the punishment phase, jurors began considering her sentence at about 3:50 p.m. today.

The defense was seeking probation; prosecutors asked jurors to show their "moral outrage."

The state did not call any witnesses during the punishment phase, but Colleps' mother, Shirley Bush, took the stand for the defense and testified that she was disappointed with her daughter, who she described as a model child.

Colleps was a star softball player at Arlington High School and was named the Arlington Star-Telegram's newcomer of the year in 1999.

Bush asked the jury to have "mercy" on her daughter and their kids.

"They need their mom," Bush said. "... It's not their faults."

During cross-examination, Bush acknowledged that her daughter had told her that Colleps and her husband had been involved in group sex before.

The mother said her daughter deserves a second chance to prove herself to her children.

A family friend was called next and testified that Colleps' children have acute allergies and asthma and that Colleps is their primary caregiver.

"There are three children that are going to be without a mother if she goes to jail," the friend said.

John, one of the students Colleps had sex with took the stand next, and told jurors that she should only lose her teaching certificate and get minimal probation, saying she has already paid plenty for her crimes.

John said he cares about Colleps and is concerned for her.

Colleps’ husband, Christopher Colleps, testified next and said they’ve been married for nine years. He acknowledged that the last year has been “pretty rough.”

He had been in the military, and was stationed outside of Arlington when his wife had the sexual escapades with the students.

He said he has watched the video of his wife having sex with the students and said he was mad at her, but that he was working through the problems and going to church and praying.

Defense attorney Lex Johnston asked Christopher Colleps if he and his wife had sex with other people and crying, he replied “yes sir.”

Christopher Colleps said they did nothing illegal and that he is staying with his wife “because til death do us part means til death do us part.”

He said that what his wife did was “morally and ethically wrong” but that’s “between me and her and God.”

He said that putting her in jail would punish him and their children for something they had no control over.

Christopher Colleps said the children cried when they were told that "mommy did some bad things and made some bad choices and ... might have to go away."

'It's completely disgusting'

During closing arguments earlier this morning, prosecutor Tim Rodgers said the evidence against Colleps is "overwhelming."

"There's no gray area. There isn't a sliding scale of how guilty she is," Rodgers said.

Defense attorney Cynthia Fitch countered by saying that Colleps has lost her good name and her reputation with this case.

"Her name has been drug through the mud through the last 15 months," Fitch said.

Lex Johnston, who is also representing Colleps, said "this is a victimless crime."

"I didn't hear from any children," Johnston continued. "These are grown men that are old enough to go to war."

Johnston asked jurors to read excerpts from the text messages Colleps and the students shared.

"Those are the children the district attorney's office wants you to protect," Johnston said. "... Each one of these boys is just as guilty in this crime as Brittni Colleps."

Johnston said the trial was nothing more than a dog and pony show "and you can infer that she didn't want to have any part of it."

He asked jurors "to tell the DA and the state of Texas that this act is not a crime."

Prosecutor Elizabeth Beach said that Colleps signed a school policy promising to comply with the law to not have sexual relations with students.

"You don't have a crime captured on videotape very often and that is what you have here," Beach said.

She said the students did not wear condoms and that "everybody ejaculated" during the night when Colleps was videotaped having sex with four of the students. Beach described the amount of bodily fluids and possible diseases exchanged during the night as "staggering and it is disgusting. It's completely disgusting."

Beach told the jurors "that is the legacy that this senior English teacher left to her students. That is her legacy."

Beach asked the jurors to return a guilty verdict on all counts.

'18 or not, it's a crime'

On Thursday, three of the former students who testified told jurors that they did not consider themselves victims and did not want to see their former English teacher prosecuted.

Arlington police Detective Jason Houston testified that charges were filed because "18 or not, it's a crime" for a teacher to have sex with her students.

The only emotion Colleps has shown came Thursday afternoon after prosecutors rested their case.

Standing at the defense table with the jury out of the courtroom, Colleps was asked by her attorney, Lex Johnston, whether the state had ever offered her a plea bargain.

She answered no.

She then began crying as she indicated that she never wanted the case to go to trial, or her former students to have to testify.

After Colleps indicated that she would not testify, Johnston rested his case without presenting any evidence.

'I didn't want to get her in trouble'

The first former student to testify Thursday told jurors that his sexual relationship with Colleps began with little fanfare.

The 19-year-old, who is using the pseudonym Richard, testified that he had never exchanged texts with Colleps but had simply gone to her Arlington home twice with friends and that they all engaged in sexual conduct.

Former students Mark and Aaron testified Tuesday that their sexual relationships with Colleps began with the exchange of text messages that quickly turned sexual.

Richard testified that he did not have intercourse with Colleps but that she performed oral sex on him both times.

Richard said he does not consider himself a victim and was "happy" to be at Colleps' house.

A student identified as "Jordan" testified that he learned from his friend Mark that Colleps was having sex with students.

"I just was amazed," said Jordan, now 20.

Jordan testified that he went to Colleps' house twice and engaged in group sex and that he recorded the last encounter using Aaron's phone.

He said that from the start, the students discussed having to keep quiet about their activities because they didn't want Colleps to get in trouble.

And yet, Jordan testified, he was called into the school office May 11, 2011, and questioned about it by school officials.

He said he initially denied the relationship, not out of embarrassment, but because "I didn't want to get her in trouble."

"I was trying to save her," Jordan testified.

Under cross-examination by Johnston, Jordan denied that Colleps told him to stop filming the encounter.

'Keeping it on the low'

Johnston and fellow defense attorney Cynthia Fitch tried unsuccessfully to prevent the recording from being entered into evidence, arguing to state District Judge Ruben Gonzalez that Colleps was unaware that it was being made and had not given her consent. Jurors were shown the graphic video Tuesday.

The final witness for the state Thursday was John, now 19, who testified that he had first gone with Colleps to a Texas Rangers baseball game and that nothing sexual occurred.

But John said he went repeatedly to Colleps' house with friends, and at least once alone, and engaged in sexual conduct with her.

During one of those times, John testified, Colleps cooked the students spaghetti, then showed them sex toys -- some of which lighted up -- and modeled some lingerie.

He said the friends went into the back yard with Colleps, where they played a game of truth and dare.

John testified that after Jordan was dared to have sex with Colleps, all the students eventually made their way into her bedroom, where they had sex with her.

John testified that the group had discussed "keeping it on the low" so that Colleps wouldn't get in trouble.

Under cross-examination by Johnston, John acknowledged that he did not want to be in court testifying against Colleps.

When Johnston asked what John believes should happen to Colleps, he replied, "Me personally, I wouldn't say jail time."

Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655

Twitter: @deannaboyd