A former Florida middle school “Rookie Teacher of the Year” will avoid jail time after pleading guilty to charges related to grooming a 14-year-old male student into a sexual relationship.
Brittiny Lopez-Murray, 33, entered the plea to six charges on Wednesday, including lewd and lascivious battery, lewd and lascivious molestation of a child, and electronic transmission harmful to minors, NBC Miami reported.
Lopez-Murray was originally arrested in October 2021 when she was a drama teacher at Hialeah Middle School after the victim’s sister discovered explicit texts and photos on his phone, according to Crime Online.
The unnamed 14-year-old had been her student while he attended Hialeah but was in high school at the time of the incidents.
Lopez-Murray, who was awarded the “Rookie Teacher of the Year” designation in 2017, was reportedly texting with the teen two months earlier about “her feelings toward” him, police said.
Investigators unveiled text exchanges detailing “how much they enjoyed the sex with each other,” the police report stated.
Officials said the educator would occasionally pick the student up after his basketball practices so the two could engage in sexual activity in her car.
Crime Online reported that the teacher-student duo went out for coffee and dates, often leading to sexual encounters in Lopez-Murray’s car, including in a mall parking lot.
“The defendant also groomed, enticed, encouraged the victim to send child pornography images by writing things such as, ‘perfect, and yum,’” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the outlet.
In exchange for her guilty plea, the predator got off with just two years of community control and ten years of probation. She will also be required to register as a sex offender and partake in a mental health program for sex offenders, the local NBC affiliate reported.
Prosecutors said that Lopez-Murray’s plea was “approved” by the victim’s family, according to the outlet.