iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A Florida science teacher was arrested after two students he was having separate sexual relationships with realized what was going on and told his wife, according to documents in the case reviewed by ABC News.
Corey French, 30, was charged with unlawful sexual activity with certain minors and unlawful intercourse with a minor — at his house, the school and one of the girl’s stepmother’s house, according to a school district investigative report released this week.
One of the victims was 16 and the other 17 when they were sleeping with French, law enforcement officials said in a statement released in September.
In a subsequent court appearance, French pleaded not guilty and was released on bail.
The pair of now former students at Neptune Beach’s Duncan Fletcher High School refused to press charges against French, and he resigned from his position at school in May. The charges remain pending and French’s next court appearance is scheduled for next month.
French’s attorney, Melinda Patterson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case from ABC News, but she previously told the Florida Times-Union newspaper that French denied having sexual relationships with the two young women.
“He is maintaining his innocence across the board,” Patterson told the newspaper.
A spokesman for the State Attorney’s office told ABC News that “this is an active case and we are unable to comment at this time.”
After learning that they both slept with French, the students contacted French’s wife in March 2018 and told her everything, as well as providing her with a photos and screenshots to back up their story, according to police and school authorities.
In one photo, according to the school district report, her husband is standing in the doorway of the couple’s bedroom in boxer shorts. In another photo referenced in the report, one of the teen’s is allegedly pictured in a negligee in French’s bathroom.
French’s wife contacted the school district, which contacted police.
“The girls said they were upset because Mr. French made a comment about not divorcing his wife and said they were working on the relationship,” an investigator wrote in a Duval County School District report on the matter
In March, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Special Assault Unit launched an investigation after the Duval County School Board informed them of possible sex crimes involving French.
One of the young women’s sexual relationship lasted “on again, off again” with French for three years, according to the school district report. The other teen’s sexual relationship began in the spring of her senior year and lasted until the fall.
“It was revealed that both victims had consensual sexual relations with French while he was an active teacher employed at Fletcher High School between the years of 2015 and 2017,” police said in the statement.
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