Ohio teacher accused in sex trial: 'What happens here stays here'

 Julie Hautzenroeder in court Tuesday morning / The Enquirer/Kimball Perr

Julie Hautzenroeder always was a popular teacher, especially with one of the male 16-year-old students at Colerain High in suburban Cincinnati.

The student traded text messages with the 36-year-old science teacher and communicated with her using social media. Even though he wasn't in any of her science classes, the sophomore still ate his lunch in her classroom.


That escalated, Hamilton County prosecutors said Tuesday, to the teacher having sex with that teen and another 16-year-old sophomore in her Loveland home this spring.



"She tells them, 'My house is Las Vegas -- what happens here stays here,' " Assistant Prosecutor Josh Berkowitz told the jury that will decide if Hautzenbroeder is guilty of two counts of sexual battery.


The teacher took the two students into her bedroom. "The lights are out, clothes come off," Berkowitz said.

 

The teacher is accused of having vaginal sex with one of the teens and of performing oral sex on the other.


After that, the 16-year-old boys did what most 16-year-old boys who'd had sex with a teacher would do -- they told their friends. They texted their friends and their friends parents saw some of the extremely graphic sexual messages and called police.


Police interviewed Hautzenroeder, who admitted she had an inappropriate relationship with a student but that it wasn't sexual.


One of the students testified otherwise before lunch today.


“She asked us if we could hang out,” one of the alleged victims said. “I thought it could actually happen and I could get with a teacher ... like, sexually.”


"I am not going to ask you to think of these boys as victims ... They were eager participants," Berkowitz said.


Hautzenroeder is charged with two counts of sexual battery. They carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.


She resigned Aug. 12 after the allegations were made. She was placed on administrative leave in May when school administrators heard of what ultimately became her criminal charges.


She worked for Northwest Local School District since 2003. She became a permanent science teacher at Colerain High in 2006.


Prosecutors believe Hautzenroeder’s daughter was in the house at the time of the alleged incidents but prosecutors believe she may have been asleep.


The trial is being heard by a jury before Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert Nadel.

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