Psychologist Gets 3 Years For Teen Sex
Posted on Thursday, 5 of February , 2009 at 4:11 pm
RENSSELAER COUNTY—A former Rensselaer County psychologist who admitted that she had had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old male she had been assigned to counsel has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Jennifer Hastings, 33, of Sand Lake, must also serve five years of post-release probation. Her attorney, Stephen Coffey, had asked Supreme Court Judge Patrick McGrath to spare her a prison term, unsuccessfully arguing that she had been mentally ill at the time of the sexual encounters.
The district attorney’s office had asked for a five year prison term.
Last October, Hastings, an ex-employee of the Rensselaer County Unified Family Services, pleaded guilty to the entire indictment against her which included counts of second degree rape, a felony, along with engaging in a criminal act, endangering the welfare of a child and third degree sexual abuse for having sexual contact with her patient on several occasions including in her car, area motels and her Sand Lake residence.
She had previously rejected a plea deal that would have sent her to prison for up to five years.
She had been employed by the county since 2003 and resigned from the $52,426 a year job following her arrest. Her psychology license has been suspended.
State Police said that the school resource officer at Tamarac High School in Brunswick became suspicious when Hastings picked up the teenager, then a freshman, from the school and claimed to be his sister. An BCI investigation revealed that she was the boy’s court-appointed counselor and that she had allegedly moved the counseling sessions from the school to her car in the school parking lot. Police said that the teen has admitted having sexual intercourse with Hastings during September and October last year.
Although there are no allegations that the sexual contact was forced, the age of consent in New York State is 17. Coffey had argued that the teenage boy had allegedly threatened to expose Hastings if she ended the affair. 2-05-09
Category: Courts, Crime, Education, New York State
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