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Clarke juries split verdicts last week A former Coffeeville High School teacher was found guilty of enticing two juvenile students for immoral purposes last week in Clarke County Circuit Court. A jury found Sharon L. Rutherford guilty on two counts of enticing on Wednesday, Oct. 24. Jurors deliberated for about three hours before returning the verdict around 7 p.m. Rutherford, 32 and of Thomasville, was initially charged with having alleged sexual contact with at least four of her CHS students, including soliciting one of them to kill her husband, James Rutherford who filed for divorce last year. The solicitation charge still pending and was not brought out during last week's trial. It was later learned that two the students in question were legal age at the time and Rutherford did not deny the sexual contact. Both of those young men testified as to their relationships with Rutherford. Her attorney, Richard Jensen, termed the longest involvement with one of the students a love affair that might have been wrong but was not illegal. The enticement charge involved students who were 14 and 15 the time, under the age of Alabama's consent law of 16. Rutherford reportedly asked that they be sent to her room and prosecutors Ronnie Keahey and Joe Thompson alleged it was for immoral purposes. One of the younger students testified that Rutherford brushed her hand across the other student's groin area and made sexually suggestive remarks. However, the other student denied any sexual contact with Rutherford, as did his mother who testified for the defense. Prosecutors told jurors that actual sexual contact was not necessary; that the enticement charge involved the act of luring or seeking out the young men for immoral purposes.
Enticement is a Class C felony with a potential sentence of up to 10 years on each count. A sentence hearing is set for Dec. 10 before the trial judge, Judge Thomas Baxter.
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