Brianne Altice, a former Utah teacher who pleaded guilty in 2015 to sexual abuse, is pleading for forgiveness – and an early release.
After having sex with three of her underage students, she is seeking parole this week in an emotional hearing, detailing her crimes.
“I clearly lost sight of all my values and my principles and was seeking inappropriate means to address my own issues,” Altice said.
“Issues I’m very aware of now.”
Before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, she said, “This was my doing. This was no one else’s fault but my own.”
“This was not my ex-husband’s fault, or the school’s fault, or my students’ fault. These were my poor, poor decisions.”
“I’m very aware of it and I am very remorseful,” said the 36-year-old. “I regret the decisions I made that brought us here.”
Brianne Altice, a former English teacher at Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah, is also a mother of two minor children.
In exchange for her guilty plea to three counts, 11 others were dropped, including three first-degree felony rape charges.
Altice was first arrested in October 2013; Brianne admitted to inappropriate sexual conduct with the victims, then 16 and 17.
She says she had sex with one of them, a then 16-year-old student, in a church parking lot and during the school lunch hour.
Altice also admits to having sexual encounters with one victim, a 17-year-old boy, after she was arrested and out on bail.
“I had extreme self-esteem issues, and they [the victims] said things that made me feel good about myself,” she said.
“I just started to justify everything.”
Prosecutors say Altice’s crimes had a “really substantial impact” on her victims, despite what some might consider a consensual encouter.
“I didn’t see it that way because she impacted the lives of these boys,” Davis County Deputy District Attorney Cristina Ortega said.
“I think it was the sentiment in the public that it’s any boy’s dream to have a relationship with an older woman like a teacher.”
“I think she took advantage of each of the boys and what issues they may have had, [be it] family or drugs or that sort of thing.”
“I think she took advantage of that and made their problems even worse. And on top of that, they had to deal with the public scrutiny.”
“I think people don’t see how it really affects the kids, the boys. It’s not a ‘tie the boy down and rape him’ sort of abuse.”
“You don’t know until you’re a parent, really,” Ortega said.
“What it is … it’s more of an emotional abuse.”
Altice said at Tuesday’s hearing that she has earned a paralegal certificate and has been taking life-skills classes and receiving therapy.
If she is released, the disgraced educator said she plans to live at a home owned by her parents and continue her therapy actively.
A five-member board will now deliberate and make a decision next month to determine how much time Altice will spend behind bars.
There’s a lot at stake, to put it mildly:
Altice’s current release date is 2045.
