Teacher pleads guilty in sex case involving student

PUYALLUP — A teacher who resigned after being accused of kissing a student has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of a criminal attempt to have sexual contact with a minor.

Marty G. Barnes, 44, of Tacoma, formerly an American sign language instructor at Puyallup High School, was sentenced Tuesday to a $1,000 fine with $700 is suspended and 90 days with 80 days suspended.

At the recommendation of prosecutors and defense lawyers, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephen also ordered Barnes serve the 10 remaining days on electronic home monitoring and obtain sex offender treatment counseling.

"I would like to apologize to the family for the pain I caused," said Barnes, whose husband is a sheriff’s detective. "I take full responsibility."

Under the plea agreement, she avoided having to register as a sex offender. She originally was charged with second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.

The case involves 16-year-old boy whom investigators said she "intimately kissed" on two occasions in her classroom.

School official apologizes for slur: A Portland School Board member who made allegedly anti-Semitic statements that were published in a newspaper apologized Wednesday, but refused to step down from his post. Derry Jackson, who is black, told The Oregonian that Jews run the country and the school board, often at the expense of black students. Mayor Vera Katz, who is Jewish and whose family fled Nazi persecution in Germany when she was a young girl, said his comments were "anti-Semitic."

City commissioner Jim Francesconi called for Jackson to resign. In a statement read to the media Wednesday, Jackson said, "I sincerely apologize to the Jewish Community for any statements that may have been construed as divisive or in any way damaging to the hard work that has already been done to bring the Jewish and African-American communities into a cooperative relationship," Jackson said.

Polynesian lays claim to Kennewick Man: A man who says he is the descendent of a Polynesian ruler is laying claim to the 9,300-year-old human remains found in an eroded bank of the Columbia River in 1996, saying in court papers that Kennewick Man was related to ancient Polynesians. Joseph Siofele, also known as Paramount Chieftan Faumuina, of Moreno Valley, Calif., becomes the third party seeking custody of the skeleton, which is being kept in Seattle’s Burke Museum. In the suit filed Monday, Siofele says Kennewick Man was a relative of the Tui Manu’a, the first ancient rulers of ancient Polynesia. After the biblical flood, the suit says, Asian peoples migrated to Alaska, then to present-day Washington state, South America and on to Polynesia. The Asian peoples’ names are similar to those found in Polynesia today, the suit claims.

Woman allegedly admits killing daughter: A Hillsboro woman accused of killing her 9-year-old daughter and hiding the body allegedly told several former cellmates that she killed the girl and buried her at sea, according to testimony at a bail hearing. Karen Lee Huster, 42, who has spent time in prison for refusing to produce her daughter, is charged with murder. No body has been found. Detective John Stratford testified Tuesday that several inmates recalled Huster saying she killed her daughter with a pillow. Huster also reportedly said she killed the girl to keep her ex-husband from getting custody. Elisabeth Anne Huster was reported missing Dec. 23, 1996, nearly four months after she was last seen.

From Herald news services