Local teacher faces multiple rape charges

Clinton Middle School math teacher Keri Hoffman was arrested Sunday on four felony counts involving sexual encounters with a 15-year-old male student.
Monday afternoon Hoffman appeared before Special District Judge Donna Dirickson via video conference at the Custer County Courthouse on charges of facilitating sexual conduct with a minor by electronic technology, two counts of rape in the second degree and engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses. 
Hoffman is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. May 11 back at the courthouse in Arapaho for a preliminary hearing conference.
The initial bond for the 35-year-old teacher was set at $120,000. Hoffman’s attorney, Seth Adams, asked the judge to consider lowering the bond to $15,000-25,000 due to the fact his client was “willing to face charges” and was not a flight risk.
District Attorney Angela Marsee responded that Hoffman and her husband had been separated and thus have lived in multiple places making her difficult to locate.
 Judge Dirickson said she wanted to know where Hoffman was “going to put her head on a pillow each night” before lowering the bond. She was assured Hoffman would be staying at her mother’s home and the bond was subsequently lowered to $30,000.
Under the conditions of the bond, Hoffman is not to have any contact with the alleged victim or any other minors with the exception of immediate family members. She is also under orders to contact Adams weekly and the attorney must check in with the courthouse to confirm the communication is taking place. If Hoffman violates these orders, Dirickson said she would issue an arrest warrant.
According to an affidavit filed by Special Agent Trevor Ridgeway of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Hoffman and her husband went Saturday to the Clinton Police Department to let authorities know what had happened.
Hoffman’s husband told local officers that his wife had confessed to having an alleged sexual affair with her 15-year-old male student and he convinced her to turn herself in. She refused to divulge the identity of the student she had sex with (the 15-year-old student is still considered a juvenile and his name has been redacted in the released affidavit following what is proper under Oklahoma law). At that time the local officers contacted OSBI to ask the agency to take over the investigation.
Agent Ridgeway interviewed Hoffman at the CPD about the incidents. She told him she and the student started communicating via Facebook Messenger, “their relationship grew to a romantic nature,” and they arranged to meet and have sex.
Ridgeway’s affidavit claims Hoffman and the student met for sexual encounters on the dates of Friday, March 30, 2018; Monday, April 2, 2018; Tuesday, April 3, 2018: and possibly Thursday April 5, 2018.
What is significant among those dates is Hoffman told Ridgeway the April 2, 3 and 5 encounters occurred during the time she took students to participate at the State Capitol during the teacher walkout demonstrations. She apparently had a signed permission waiver for the student she was having sex with, among others. The two would allegedly have sex when she picked the student up at times and others when she was dropping him off.
Sunday Ridgeway also interviewed the student Hoffman was apparently engaging in the sexual relationship.
The student confirmed he and Hoffman began talking through Facebook and that he is a current student of hers. He also confirmed Hoffman’s statements of where the sexual encounters took place, including northwest of Bessie and also in a garage at her father’s residence.
Ridgeway met Hoffman Sunday at her mother’s Clinton residence and proceeded to arrest her and take her to the Custer County Jail.
Before she was arrested, Hoffman apparently notified school officials she would no longer be employed with the school district.  
Clinton Superintendent of Public Schools Kevin Hime could not comment on any of the details, but he did confirm Hoffman had contacted Clinton Middle School principal Kyle Hilterbran Saturday and said she had done something very wrong and was resigning. Even though it was not known what had taken place at that time, Hilterbran informed Clinton Police. According to Hime, Hoffman is in her 11th year as a teacher in the school system.
“We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation,” said Hime. “We do everything we can to protect our students and staff.”
There are currently more than 300 employees and more than 2,200 students in the Clinton Public Schools. State law prohibits a teacher from having sex with a student – regardless of age or consent of both parties.

8.  Where the victim is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student, or under the legal custody or supervision of any public or private elementary or secondary school, junior high or high school, or public vocational school, and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system; or