Danielle Walls, the San Diego area teacher accused of a bunch of things (sleeping with students, providing them with drugs and alcohol, etc.), was sentenced recently. Walls had pled guilty back in July, and prosecutors say she slept with the 16 year old student 10-25 times at a variety of local hotels. Her sentence:

On Tuesday, Walls was sentenced to one year in jail and will also be on probation for five years. Walls had faced up to five years and six months in prison. She could have been sentenced to as much as 16 years in prison if she had been convicted of all the original charges.

Danielle apologized before sentencing, saying that “at the time of the incidents, she felt that her life didn’t matter”. Pretty sad situation, but really a year isn’t too bad, not when you consider how salacious were the details of this particular case.

Danielle Walls has pled guilty. She’ll be sentenced on September 26th:

A 27-year-old former Clairemont High School history teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to having unlawful sexual intercourse with one of her male students two years ago and plying him with cocaine and alcohol.

Danielle Marie Walls faces a sentence ranging from probation to 5 1/2 years in state prison when she is sentenced Sept. 26 by San Diego Superior Court Judge Frank Brown.

[...]

“The sad thing is you had a bright future. That’s gone,” the judge told the defendant, who remains free on $65,000 bail pending sentencing.

But Brown commended Walls for admitting guilt at an early stage to avoid putting the victim and his family — who reported her to police — through any further ordeal.

[...]

The victim was in Walls’ 10th-grade history class in 2004, a time when the defendant was an “out-of-control cocaine fiend,” Moring said earlier.

Walls had apparently been working as a real estate agent since losing her teaching position.

Danielle Walls is a 27 year old history teacher at Clairemont High School, in California. She’s accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year old student at Clairemont:

According to police, Danielle Walls, 27, was a history teacher at Clairemont High School at the time of the alleged sexual assaults, which authorities said involved a 16-year-old boy who attended the school. Officials said the sexual assaults took place between April and December 2004.

San Diego media has done something that I find quite hilarious with this case. They’ve been extensively gathering student reaction:

“She was more like a sister to a lot of the girls,” one female student told NBC 7/39.

Student Alexandra Apaldetti said the allegations disgusted her.

“That’s just gross and, wow, that’s out there,” said Apaldetti. “That’s a shocker.”

That’s from NBCSanDiego. This is from 10news.com:

One student said, “If somebody had a party, she (Walls) would be there.�?

Some of Walls’ former students said she didn’t always act like a teacher.

“She was all over the guys. She didn’t talk to the girls, just the guys,�? said senior Mayra Valero.

[...]

“Everybody says ‘Miss Walls is fine’�? said one male student.

Another student said, “Yeah, he’s underage but he’s old enough to know wrong and right.�?

“They know what they wanted to do and they did it,�? said another student.

One male student said he believes the victim was lucky.

Other students said whether the teacher is male or female, it is wrong.

“They’re teacher and student. The teacher has power either way,�? said student Luigi Assenti.

If you ever needed further evidence of how sensationalistic media coverage of these things has become then those above quotes ought to prove it to you.

Meanwhile, Walls’ legal team is claiming that the 16 year old tried to blackmail her:

An attorney representing a former Clairemont High School teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student said Friday the boy tried to blackmail her for $10,000.

Attorney Gretchen von Helms was hired by 27-year-old Danielle Walls.

[...]

Von Helms says the accuser’s MySpace.com profile reveals a lot about his character. One picture posted on the site shows the young man and his friends with beer bottles. Another picture shows the alleged victim with a glass in his hand, and the caption reads ‘rum and coke.’

Several pictures show the young man flipping off the camera, and one shows him wearing a t-shirt that reads ‘Life of Crime – West Side.’

“You have to look really hard at this case — these allegations are two years old, they are now being made by an adult male,” von Helms said.

“The pictures of him on that MySpace page are not very flattering, and so you have to kind of question what type of person this is making these allegations, and therefore how strong these allegations are,” she added.

[...]

“There have been allegations that he and or his sister have been trying to extort my client and her family members and try to get money out of them and when that didn’t fly they went to the authorities,” she said.

The attorney says she has information that Walls and her sister were asked to pay somewhere in the realm of $10,000, or the accuser was going to the police.

And this is hilarious:

News 8 received a picture in an e-mail that claims to show Walls with a former student at a party. Walls appears to be holding an unusual sort of pipe.

I’ll tell you this right now: America might better know the names of Debra Lafave, Mary Kay Letourneau, and Pamela Rogers, but this case kicks all their asses. Danielle Walls for the win ladies and gentlemen.

The prosecutor in the case has an interesting opinion of Ms. Walls:

First sex, now drugs — new charges are filed against a teacher accused of having sex with a student.

[...]

Walls not only had sex with the boy 10 to 25 times at four or five hotels around the county, Deputy District Attorney Dwayne Moring alleged, she also gave him drugs and alcohol. The student was 16 years old in 2004 when the the incidents allegedly took place.

“During that time, the defendant was an out-of-control coke fiend,” Moring said. “She furnished the victim with cocaine and alcohol.”

Danielle Walls is awesome. I can’t wait to find out what happens next.