McMINNVILLE, Tenn. - Near the end of the 59-minute probation violation hearing, convicted sexual offender Pamela Rogers rose to address the judge who would send her to jail for more than seven years.
"I'm sorry," she began. The tears fell first as a trickle that she wiped away with a wad of tissue in a handcuffed hand, but the salty flow quickly became a river of sobs as she further apologized for the pain and the embarrassment her actions of the past two years had brought her victim and his family, her family and her friends.
Then the former elementary school gym teacher asked Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley for mercy.
But the judge was not in a generous mood.
Less than four minutes after her tearful apology, Stanley sternly took the young woman to task for her behavior since she was paroled in February.
"The thing I can't understand is why, when you were released after seven or eight months in jail, you didn't blink an eye. You continued at that point to violate your probation and contacted this family, send lewd videos and lewd pictures to the same person," the judge told the hushed courtroom.
Sitting two rows behind Rogers in the spectators' gallery, her parents, Lamar and Karen Rogers, lowered their chins and wiped away tears.
In order to deliver a message to the state of Tennessee, the judge said in a measured voice, he was sending Rogers to the Tennessee Prison for Women to serve the remainder of the eight-year sentence that she received in August after pleading no-contest to four counts of sexual battery.
The charges involved a sexual relationship with a teenage boy, then 14, who was a student at the school where Rogers taught, Centertown Elementary. Court documents indicate she had sex with him multiple times, at school, in her car and at his home. After her conviction, she served a few months in jail, then was released on probation and ordered not to communicate with the boy.
However, authorities said that, less than two months later, she sent explicit photos and videos of herself to the boy via cameraphone. They also said she had created a Web page through MySpace.com on which she posted messages to the boy, addressing him by his basketball jersey number, saying she was still in love with him and suggesting she would wait until he turned 18 to continue their romance.
"I don't mind giving someone a second chance if there's a reasonable likelihood that they can be rehabilitated, that they will take probation seriously in an attempt to straighten their life out," the judge said in court Friday. "We all make mistakes, but you have done everything except show this court that you wanted to abide by the terms of your probation and get your life back in order and follow the law."
The decision pleased District Attorney General Dale Potter, who told reporters: "She deserves what she got."
The prosecutor said nothing in Rogers' tearful statement moved him to pity her. "I wasn't moved by anything I heard in court today except what the judge had to say about her serving the balance of her sentence,'' Potter said.
Defense attorney Peter Strianse said his client had made the decision to speak to the judge. "She was very serious about addressing the court. She's conducted herself with great grace throughout this whole thing. She's never had a cross word about anybody."
At Friday afternoon's hearing, the defense offered testimony from a Nashville psychologist, Joan Schleicher, who presented evidence that Rogers suffers from sexual addiction.
Schleicher testified that various psychological tests she administered to Rogers indicated Rogers had "two internal parts of herself." The psychologist said she did not have a split personality but had two sides to her life. One was high-functioning; the other was stuck in junior high school, for reasons unknown.
Schleicher said Rogers created an irrational and idealized world where relationships and life were perfect. But her life was not perfect, the psychologist testified.
Schleicher said the best course of action would be to enroll Rogers in a treatment center that specializes in sexual addiction.
"She can learn to control her addictions,'' she said.
After the hearing, Potter said Rogers could get psychological help at the state prison. "She will have access to treatment for sexual predators that the prison system offers. It will be up to her to take advantage of it," the district attorney general said.
Strianse offered a different view of the diagnosis: "It's truly sad. It's a pathetic obsession. I think she has suffered greatly because of it.''
Earlier in the week, the judge received letters of support for Rogers from her parents, an aunt and others. In their correspondence, the woman's parents blamed Rogers' ex-husband, Chris Turner, a former Warren County High School basketball coach, for their daughter's downward spiral. The pair accused Turner of emotional and psychological abuse.
The letters incensed Potter. "It was a low blow and a cheap shot against somebody that was not in court to defend themselves, and (they were blaming) someone that had nothing to do with this case," he said.
Turner, who no longer works in Warren County, could not be reached for comment Friday. He has not been charged with any crime.
Turner's attorney, Mike Galligan, called the letter from Rogers' mother "the statements of a desperate mother."
Galligan said Rogers' former husband divorced her because of her infidelity. He said Turner is a "very nice, clean-cut young man who wants nothing more than to distance himself from this mess."
Potter asked the judge to place the letters under seal, shielding them from public access, a request that was granted. However, many news organizations represented in court Friday, including The Tennessean, had viewed the letters as part of the court record and obtained copies.
Rogers will have 30 days to appeal Stanley's decision. Strianse said he did not know whether his client wants to appeal.
Before the probation hearing, Rogers was arraigned on four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Those charges stem from what the indictments call "patent-ly offensive" videos and photos she allegedly sent to the boy.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges and will be back in Warren County on Nov. 22 to set a trial date or to announce a plea with the prosecutor.
Potter indicated he was not in a dealing mood with Rogers. "She could get an additional eight years," he said.
If so, the prosecutor added, he will seek consecutive sentences. •
