Sharon Linton Rutherford is the Alabama teacher allegedly involved in a bizarre To Die For type conspiracy to murder her husband:

Sheriff officials say Sharon Linton Rutherford, 31, had sex with two students who were younger than 16 and tried to persuade one of them to join in the murder plot. Rutherford’s attorney said she has denied all allegations.

Rutherford has now been indicted on these charges:

A former Clarke County schoolteacher has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of soliciting two boys for immoral purposes and for recruiting one of the students to kill her husband.

[...]

“This is not unexpected,” her attorney, Richard “Rowdy” Jensen, said of the indictment, which was handed down this week. “We look forward to trying the case in front of a jury of 12 honest and good citizens of Clarke County. The truth will come out, and Miss Rutherford will be found not guilty of all charges.”

[...]

“The grand jury heard pretty much the entire case as presented by the investigating officer,” Walker told the Press-Register in a story for Saturday’s editions. “They thought there was sufficient evidence to issue an indictment.”

Rutherford isn’t through the woods yet however:

A rape charge against a Clarke County teacher has been dismissed, but she still faces a charge of solicitation of murder and two charges of enticing a child for immoral purposes.

Why the judge dropped the rape charge:

In the rape case, prosecutors argued that while the 19-year-old student had reached the age of consent, a mental disability made him unable to give proper consent. First-degree rape, however, does not include a provision to protect the mentally disabled, the judge noted.

Shades of Pam Smart?

A Coffeeville High School teacher has been arrested and charged with having sex with at least four students and involving at least one of them in a plot to kill her husband.

The teacher, Sharon Linton Rutherford, 30, was arrested Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday in Clarke County Circuit Court.

Charges include solicitation of murder, first-degree rape, second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of enticing a child for immoral purposes.

This’ll be a big story over the next year, and of course we’ll be following it extremely closely at Hott for Teacher.

Apparently kids had been reporting Rutherford’s misdeeds for years, with little success:

The first accusation against Rutherford came in 2004, Stephens told the Press-Register in Mobile.

An unsigned letter contained accusations that she was sleeping with students. He said the school investigated and informed police, but had little to go on.

On April 5, one of the students told Principal Janice Richardson that he had slept with the teacher, according to police and Stephens.

The principal contacted Stephens, who interviewed the student and contacted authorities, Stephens said.

Authorities declined to comment on the evidence.

The teacher’s husband, James Rutherford, was a physical education teacher at Coffeeville High last year, Stephens said, but took a new job in McIntosh, in southern Washington County.