This isn’t terribly surprising:

The district attorney who prosecuted Pamela Rogers on charges of having sex with a boy who attended the elementary school where she was a teacher lost his bid for re-election.

Political newcomer Lisa Zavogiannis outpolled District Attorney Dale Potter more than 3- to-1 Thursday in a race where his handling of the Rogers case became a campaign issue. Zavogiannis carried all precincts in the district covering Warren and Van Buren counties to beat Potter 8,668 to 2,822.

[...]

Potter had been criticized over not taking the Rogers case to trial or striking a tougher plea bargain with her. He had told reporters that he couldn’t go to trial because the victim’s family didn’t want him to testify and that he couldn’t have persuaded any male jurors to convict Rogers.

Potter, who was elected in 1998, had been charged with official misconduct and extortion in 2001 but was acquitted.

Zavogiannis, a Democrat, spent more than $52,000 on her campaign while Potter spent just more than $16,000.

Her eight-year term begins Sept. 1. “I’m ready to go to work,” Zavogiannis said.

Potter said he would return to private law practice.

“I’m going on vacation for about 10 days and I’ll decide then what I’m going to do,” Potter said. “I want to congratulate Lisa and challenge her to top our conviction record. If she can do that, she will be a great DA.”

Andrea Rail is a 27 year old teacher at Santa Fe Unit School in Tennessee. She’s charged with two counts of solicitation of a minor:

Andrea Arnold Rail, 27, was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday for two counts of solicitation of a minor. She was arrested later in the day.

The scandal breaks as Maury County schools register for the upcoming school year. Classes begin Monday.

Rail has four years’ teaching experience, according to Maury County salary records. The schools superintendent was unavailable for comment due to registration.

Rail is now out of jail on a $10,000 bond, for which family land was used as collateral. She will be arraigned in court Aug. 8, prosecutors said.

Solicitation of a minor is a Class D felony, punishable by two to twelve years’ imprisonment.

From the AP story:

A judge ignored a former teacher’s sobbing pleas for mercy Friday and sentenced her to seven years in prison on charges that she sent explicit photos to a young teenager while on probation for having sex with him.

[...]

“You have done everything except show this court that you wanted to rehabilitate yourself,” Warren County Circuit Judge Bart Stanley said. He revoked Rogers’ probation and ordered her to serve the rest of a seven-year prison sentence that had been largely suspended.

Officers led Rogers away after she stood before the judge handcuffed and shackled. She cried as she asked for mercy and apologized to her family, the teen’s family, her relatives and friends.

“I have humiliated myself. What I did was wrong,” Rogers said. “I am willing to do anything to rehabilitate myself.”

[...]

A grand jury issued a new indictment against Rogers last week charging her with four counts of exploiting a minor. The judge set a Nov. 22 arraignment on those charges.

Rogers’ mother asked the judge for leniency in a letter, saying a bad marriage had destabilized her daughter emotionally.

“No one would have done that if they were of normal mind,” Karen Rogers wrote in the letter, obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

She said her daughter’s ex-husband, Chris Turner, had subjected her to “mental, verbal and emotional abuse” and threatened to kill her. Turner’s attorney Mike Galligan called the letter “the statements of a desperate mother.”

It’s obvious that Rogers has some sort of mental disorder, and she certainly deserves some sort of punishment after violating her parole, but in my opinion seven years is ridiculous. What does this prove exactly? She’s not going to be rehabilitated in prison, and she obviously needs some sort of mental treatment program.

In the end what would be cheaper and more effective? Prison, or medication and counseling? It seems fairly obvious to me.

I’m guessing the judge felt like he had no choice, what with this case getting so much publicity and all. It also doesn’t help that Tennessee (and the South in general) is probably one of the more unforgiving states when it comes to any case involving sex.

You kind of have to think they’re going to throw the book at her this time:

Circuit Judge Bart Stanley has delayed the previously scheduled sentencing of 29-year-old Pamela Rogers for two days at the request of her attorney, Peter Strianse of Nashville.

Warren County District Attorney Dale Potter has said he is seeking to revoke Turner’s probation and send her to prison for seven years.

Seven years … I’ll be surprised if she gets that many, but she’s going to be going to jail for awhile regardless of exactly how long it might be.

I found this Ebay auction to be really amusing:

I do these things simply because they amuse me.

Six inch scale, this is a one of a kind sculpted in polymer clay. She is not articulated comes packaged with stand. This is the only one. She is sculpted in her cell phone video tease outfit that landed her back in the joint. I hope you enjoy her as much as I had fun creating her. I am not sure i have ever laughed so hard.

Here are a couple of pictures, I’m sure you’ll recognize her outfit from her cell phone video:

Bidding is up to $200 with four days still to go on the auction. This artist has hit on a pretty nice way to make some cash. His auction has been viewed 43,000 times at the time of this writing.

Things aren’t looking good for Ms. Rogers:

Pamela Rogers, 28, will remain in jail until at least July, when her case goes before a judge.

Her parents told Good Morning America on Tuesday that their daughter needs psychological help, and not 8 more years of jail time. “We know now that she has a problem and needs months of treatment or therapy,” Lamar Rogers told GMA. “Hopefully we can show people that’s what she needs instead of jail.” Last week, authorities re-arrested Rogers and released a video that Rogers allegedly shot of herself dancing nearly naked that she sent to her male victim, who is now 14 years of age.

[...]

District Attorney General Dale Potter said in April he will seek to have Rogers return to prison to serve the remaining seven years of the original prison term.

“This came in such a short amount of time after she was released on probation and in our opinion these were intentional violations of the terms of her release,” Potter said.

Rogers’ attorney, Peter Strianse of Nashville, told WSMV-TV he was “very concerned” that Rogers’ plea agreement was in jeopardy.

Apparently Pamela Rogers was arrested again, in part anyway, for sending cell phone video of her dancing in next to nothing to her “victim”:

Apparently Pamela Rogers might have been reaching out to her victim over the phone as well as through her Myspace page:

District Attorney General Dale Potter said he would consider reviewing phone records in the case of Pamela Rogers, 28, but would give few other details, such as whose records were involved.

“We’re exploring the option that there may have been additional contact by phone,” Potter said. “At this point, I don’t want to say with who. We’ll be looking at various phone records.”

I had suspected that the Pamela Rogers website was just going to be a Myspace page, but it was taken down before I could find it. Luckily others managed to get to it before its removal. Here is a link to a screenshot, and here are some pictures:

Here are excerpts from the site:

To the victim:

TO 23………. “My Plans are Your Plans….” “Nothing’s Changed….” “Say it…..say it….” Always is the word, Baby, always. Listen to “Far Away” by Nickleback…. that’s for you. But, you know… I hate hearing something that is exactly the opposite of what you have said. I hate lies. Honesty is the biggest, most important trait in people. When I find out that I have been lied to and deceived, after all the sacrifices I have made, it makes me wanna…..

About her heroes:

“First of all, my hero is Jesus because He endured all of the crap that people and haters did to Him without trying to retaliate and be vengeful. He is truly the Savior of us ALL…. My Parents are wonderful and I am lucky to be blessed with parents like them, so they are definately 2 more heros of mine. I also think that anyone that has been thru hard, difficult times and come out as better people are hero-worthy. There is another someone that is one of my heros. He has endured a lot of crap form many angles. He is a true gentleman, one of the few ones left, and he is so smart, athletic, and sweet. He goes to church and makes his life better just by refusing to allow it to get him down. I’m sending him a backwards peace sign!!!. I think that real life heros are everywhere….sometimes they are just overlooked.”

Random thoughts on her life and her troubles:

I am the same person I have always been…things seem to change me for the better and make me stronger…I love laughing and making others laugh. I am mischievious [sic] and love a good prank…. I remember getting a good one pulled on me by Michelle, Miranda, and Jordan…. I love Halloween and rolling yards and Haunted Houses… I like eye contact and fall hard for brown-eyes. I have never dated anyone that is shorter than me, no offense, but I have to have someone to look up to…;) My favorite sport is, of course, Basketball. I have played since I was in 1st grade. I dipped in beauty pageants a little, too, but my first love was Basketball and cheering for my Daddy’s ball team. I have a 25 year old brother who is engaged to a girl that I just love…. and My Mom is awesome, too! She has a HUGE family that gets together many times a year and we have a blast! I love tubing onthe lake, four-wheeling, and being outside… that’s me in a nutshell, but there’s always more to find out… Whatever you do, though, do not add me if you are one of those guys just adding chicks to your friend list….. I actually have some brains and I am more than “just another girl”…. Also, I am not looking for a boyfriend, I am happily single and I went through a divorce about a year ago, so I am not looking for anyone…. I still do believe in LOVE, though… ;p I just think that I will wait for about 3 years before I fall into that….. Always, PJ

Here it is: