Former teacher gets 9-month jail term
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, July 19, 2006
A judge Tuesday lashed out at a former Lynnwood High School science teacher, saying he violated the trust of students, parents and colleagues.
Then Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Cowsert sentenced James Lowell Stone, 47, of Seattle, to nine months in jail for having sexual contact with a 17-year-old student.
The sentence was the middle of the range set by state law for the crime of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor. It came despite a score of letters of support sent to the judge by Stone’s friends, students and fellow teachers.
His wife asked the judge to have mercy on Stone, and a friend and former colleague called for his immediate release from custody.
Stone was jailed after he pleaded guilty in May. He will get credit for the nearly 70 days he’s already been incarcerated.
Some letters attempted to shift blame to the student for allegedly pursuing Stone, but Cowsert balked at that idea.
“It’s your fault,” the judge told Stone. “You have torpedoed your wife’s love for you.”
The judge said he’s surprised the teachers who wrote supportive letters were not more offended by Stone’s actions.
He was charged with having sexual contact with a 17-year-old student. Most of the contact took place in his car at the Alderwood mall parking lot near the high school. He once gave her $20 to buy marijuana for him, charging documents allege.
Stone was accused in court papers of having a “significant relationship” with the girl, and abusing “a supervisory position” while engaging in sexual activity with her in December.
Deputy prosecutor Matt Baldock told the judge that while the girl may have made overtures “the defendant was as much a participant” as she was.
He recommended the nine-month sentence while Everett defense attorney Michael Andrews asked for the low end of the sentencing range, six months.
“This has been … a colossal, a colossal error in judgement,” Andrews conceded. He also agreed that Stone’s acts violated the trust of many.
The acts don’t diminish his outstanding teaching career in the Edmonds and Marysville school districts, however, Andrews said.
“He has made a difference for the positive with the many people he has come into contact with,” Andrews said.
According to court documents, Stone and the girl met for coffee at the mall and smoked marijuana together in the parking lot.
The school conducted an investigation, but the girl at first denied impropriety. Later, when confronted with e-mails she exchanged with Stone, she admitted there was sexual contact.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
