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ALBANY--Sandra "Beth" Geisel could be home for Christmas.
The former English teacher at Christian Brothers Academy, charged with raping one of her willing underage male students, will be sentenced Monday, Nov. 21 in Albany County Court by Judge Stephen Herrick.
Sandra 'Beth" Geisel, 42, of Latham, pleaded guilty in September to having sex with a 16-year-old student at the Colonie Catholic prep school.
As part of the deal reached in September between prosecutors and her attorney, Donald Kinsella, Geisel will be sentenced to six months of jail time. She will be required to register as a sex offender, will be placed on probation for 10 years and be required to undergo alcohol and mental health counseling. Geisel will only have to serve two thirds of the sentence or 120 days with time credited for good behavior meaning that with credit for the time she has served in Albany County Jail since her arrest in for DWI in August that she will be out of jail next month. She waived her right to an appeal.
She had been indicted in early September on three counts of third degree rape and one count of performing a criminal sexual act, all felonies as a result of her alleged encounters with the student in May. She was accused of having sex with the student three times---with his consent and perhaps his initiation of the act---once of her Latham home, once at his Ravena home and once in the press box at the CBA football stadium on campus.
She pleaded guilty to a single charge of felony third degree rape and an unrelated charge of driving while intoxicated.
If Geisel had gone to trial and been convicted, she could have been sentenced up to 12 years in state prison.
Kinsella said that any trial in the matter "would have been a spectacle for her family". Estranged from her husband, a well-known Albany banker, Geisel is the mother of four children, one of whom is a CBA student.
Police initially found Geisel in a parked car with a 17-year-old male student in June. No criminal charges were filed because 17 is the legal age for consensual sex in New York State. She was fired from her CBA teaching position the day after the car incident.
While police were investigating that incident, the 16-year-old told police he had sexual relations with her and another 17-year-old also came forward. During the incident at the school's football stadium, several of the young male's friends reportedly remained nearby while the student allegedly engaged in sexual relations with Geisel. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0803052teach1.html?link=eaf
Geisel was charged with having sexual relations with the 16-year old on separate occasions. However, the credibility of the 16-year-old student who cried rape became an issue after it was revealed that his parents and he only filed their complaint against Geisel after he had been expelled from CBA for allegedly threatening another student, allegedly blowing up a mailbox, keying an automobile and obtaining a master key to the school building.
He has not been charged in those incidents.
He was reportedly informed by the school on June 1 that he was not invited to return for his senior year. It was the following Monday that the student's father approached CBA officials and charged that his son had had sexual relations with Geisel. According to a letter written by CBA officials to parents, the father allegedly threatened a "s---storm" of media attention at the same time he was appealing his son's expulsion from the school-in essence threatening retaliation against the school if his son was not reinstated.
Following the expulsion hearing and two days after the ruling was issued upholding the decision to expel the student, the student gave a statement to the Colonie Police alleging that Geisel had raped him.
Albany County district attorney David Soares said he found nothing that indicated that the boy was forced to have sex but rather that "a person who was of age who should have known better engaged in inappropriate behavior with a person who could not, by virtue of law, consent". 11-20-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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