Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Ex-teacher sentenced to 18 months in prison

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

A former Los Lunas first-grade teacher who pleaded guilty this summer to two counts of drug possession learned that she will be spending the next 18 months in prison.

District Judge John Pope sentenced 39-year-old Joanna Chavez of Peralta to a year and a half behind bars on Monday. Chavez, who taught at Valencia Elementary School for 10 years, was arrested in March 2006 shortly after midnight in her classroom with several baggies of methamphetamine in her purse.

Chavez was arrested eight months later in November 2006 when Los Lunas police charged her again with possession of methamphetamine and other drug paraphernalia in her purse at a local car wash.

Chavez was immediately terminated by the Los Lunas Schools after her first arrest, and the New Mexico Department of Education has since taken away her teaching certification.

During Chavez's sentencing hearing Monday, Deputy District Attorney Ron Lopez asked Pope to sentence the former teacher to the maximum four and a half years in prison. Lopez told the court that Chavez not only broke the law, but she endangered the students she was supposed to protect.

"We realize that, at this point, Ms. Chavez has done things to try and straighten up her life," Lopez said. "However, Mrs. Chavez was an elementary school teacher who was selling methamphetamine out of her classroom. This has been admitted to by Ms. Chavez's own statement ... indicating she was selling to support her own habit."

Lopez told the judge that after Chavez was arrested at the school, district officials had her classroom cleaned and tested. The prosecutor said that several surface areas within the classroom tested positive for methamphetamine.

"We are dealing with an individual who placed young children at risk," Lopez said. "She exposed those children to some very serious ramifications. Nothing did happen (to the children), but ... these children were placed in her trust — she was supposed to educate them and protect them, not to expose them to methamphetamine."

Robert Cooper, Chavez's attorney, asked Pope to place his client on probation rather than sending her to prison. He told the judge that Chavez was not only addicted to methamphetamine, but to alcohol as well. He said she has since been to rehab and has been clean and sober for more than 10 months.

Cooper said that Chavez not only lost her job and her teaching certification, but also lost many friends and was embarrassed and humiliated.

"Los Lunas is a very small community, and everyone knew that Joanna had been arrested for possession of drugs," Cooper said. "Judge, she almost lost her family. She has already been punished a lot. She's lost a lot. But she also has gained — she gained her sobriety, and there's probably nothing more important in Joanna's life than her sobriety. She gained a lot of respect from the members of this community for getting treatment, for admitting she had a problem and for becoming sober.

"Joanna has accepted responsibility," he added. "She pled guilty, she admitted to the offenses ... and she's remorseful and she knows she has let down members of this community. She's sorry for what she's done."

After Chavez's husband and her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor told the judge of her recovery process, Chavez stood and said that she was sorry for what she did and asked for a second chance.

"Over time, I realized that my ideals had changed," Chavez told the judge. "I'm not sure why things happened the way they did, but God had his reasons. I've been clean for about 10 months now, and it's been hard at times.

"I grieve for my career that I've lost, and when I think about my students, it makes me sad," she said. "All of this I caused by being an alcoholic and an addict, and I'm at fault. I admit it. In spite of it all, my life is coming together. I plead with you to not send me to prison, because I would be a better servant to myself and my community and my beautiful daughter..."

Before handing down his sentence, Judge Pope said he brings personal experiences to the bench and knows that addiction is a difficult problem to overcome. He told Chavez that he commends her for how she's overcoming her problems.

"I don't know for sure if she was selling out of her classroom or not, but she was definitely in possession of a large amount of meth in the classroom," Pope said. "It was late at night, and the risk of contamination in the classroom is, even with an addiction, is something I don't understand. I just don't know how you could do that."

Pope told Chavez he will give her two weeks to turn herself in to Department of Corrections officials. Upon her release from prison, Chavez will serve three years probation and have to complete 100 hours of community service.

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