Former Howard County teacher Kirsten Ann Kinley pleaded guilty yesterday in Circuit Court to one count of third-degree sex offense for improper sexual conduct with a 15-year-old boy at her Columbia apartment more than two years ago.
Similar charges against her involving a second boy were dropped after he refused to cooperate with prosecutors. Neither youth was one of her students.
As part of a plea agreement, Kinley, 27, a former special-education teacher at Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville, could receive up to 18 months in jail. She is to be sentenced Nov. 15.
"She's very depressed," said Thomas Morrow, her Towson-based attorney, outside the Howard County Circuit Courthouse in Ellicott City yesterday. "She's lost her teaching career. That was the focal point of her life. She's facing the unenviable task of being a convicted felon and registering as a sexual offender for the rest of her life."
In the courtroom, Kinley spoke softly as she gave brief answers to questions from Judge Diane O. Leasure. Her eyes appeared to tear up as the judge went over the details of the plea agreement.
A visibly shaken Kinley declined to comment afterward. She remains free on bond until her sentencing. She has been living with relatives in Virginia in recent months.
Kinley was the third Howard County high school teacher charged this year with having inappropriate contact with a minor. The two others are awaiting trial.
Yesterday's plea agreement prohibits Kinley from using the Internet, which she used to communicate with the boy.
At her sentencing, the prosecution is expected to ask that Kinley undergo an evaluation followed by sex-offender treatment and counseling and that she be prohibited from unsupervised contact with minors, said Assistant State's Attorney Mary Murphy.
Kinley was arrested Feb. 15 and accused of having sexual contact with the 15-year-old student in late 2004 and early 2005 while she was teaching at Hammond Middle School in the Laurel area. She originally was charged with two counts of third-degree sex offense, two counts of fourth-degree sex offense and two counts of solicitation of a minor.
In May, similar allegations were made against Kinley by a second male student. A grand jury indicted Kinley on three counts of third-degree sex offense involving that boy, who was age 14 when the incidents allegedly occurred in late 2004. That youth did not cooperate with investigators, making it impossible to prosecute Kinley on those charges, Murphy said.
