A Texas private tutor has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy and his 13-year-old girlfriend.
Leticia Lowery, 40, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree sexual assault of a child and first-degree sexual performance by a child, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
The disturbing case came to light last November after the teenage boy’s mother found text messages on his phone from the teacher that were “sexual in nature,” according to court documents obtained by local outlet KTRK-TV.
When confronted about the messages, the teen allegedly admitted to having sex with Lowery in November 2019 at her home.
An investigation later revealed that Lowery had also once collected the boy and his 13-year-old girlfriend and ordered the girl to perform oral sex on him in a van while she watched.
Lowery, who is married according to public records and ran a private tutoring business from her home in Montgomery County on the outskirts of Houston for several years, was arrested on November 6, 2019.
She also faces charges in nearby Harris County of trying to solicit sex with a minor after she allegedly texted inappropriate photos of herself to another 15-year-old boy, telling him she would do “whatever he was comfortable with.”
In that pending case, which also carries a maximum 20-year sentence, Lowery was tutoring the boy, who was the son of a family friend.
“Lowery preyed on our community’s most vulnerable … she violated children to satisfy her own selfish desires,” Assistant DA Laura Bond said in a statement, adding that the lengthy sentence “reflects this community’s intolerance for child sexual offenders.”
Her guilty plea “prevented the children involved that she victimized and sexually assaulted from having to testify,” Bond said.
“I think oftentimes when people hear about offenses that are committed by a female against a male child, people tend to minimize it but the effect on the child is still the same,” she added.