Teacher’s aide to plead guilty in sex case

Kim Smith

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

A former Durango High School teacher's aide said Monday she will plead guilty April 29 to having an affair with a 16-year-old student.

Carolyn Wilson, 40, could get anywhere from probation to as much as 12 years in prison if she follows through and pleads guilty to two counts of sexual conduct between a student and a person in authority.

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich said Wilson, who worked in the school's special education program, had originally faced six such counts and two drug-related charges.

Wilson announced her decision to enter a plea agreement moments before a preliminary hearing in her case was to begin. She is scheduled to formally enter her plea April 29 before District Judge Donald Mosley.

According to court records, when a Clark County Park Police officer found Wilson and the boy in a car at Desert Breeze Park on West Spring Mountain Road on Feb. 13, the officer smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle and found that the boy was partially nude.

Wilson and the boy, in separate interviews, told the officer that the boy had been trying to sexually assault Wilson. During subsequent interviews, however, the boy told police he and Wilson had been intimate on more than 50 occasions since November 2001.

The boy said he lied about trying to sexually assault Wilson after overhearing what she told police, court records show. He also said he was worried about her three children and her possible arrest.

The teenager and Wilson told police they exchanged gifts at Christmas time and Wilson admitted she gave the boy $1,300 to help his financially burdened family.

The boy alleged Wilson gave him money to buy marijuana, which Wilson denied.

The boy, who was in a program for students with emotional and behavioral problems, met Wilson when she assisted his English teacher for four weeks.

A Clark County School District spokeswoman said Wilson is no longer in the classroom. She declined to comment further and said Wilson's status with the school district is a personnel matter.