Ex-South Haven teacher gets prison for sexually assaulting student 6/7/2005, 7:21 p.m. ET The Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A former South Haven middle school teacher has been sentenced to at least five years and 10 months in prison after pleading no contest to charges of sexually assaulting a former student, whom she "wed" in a pagan ritual. At her sentencing hearing Monday in Kent County Circuit Court, Elizabeth Miklosovic said media reports blew her case "totally out of proportion." Defense attorney Jon Shabluk said Miklosovic never meant to harm anyone. But Judge Dennis Kolenda said she had hurt not only the victim, a girl who now is 14, but also the teaching profession. "You have undermined the credibility of every caring teacher," Kolenda told her. Miklosovic, 37, pleaded no contest May 3 to charges of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Pleading no contest is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes. Michigan State Police said Miklosovic befriended the girl, who was a student in her class two years ago at Baseline Middle School in South Haven. The pair practiced what police described as witchcraft together and were "wed" in a pagan ritual in the Manistee National Forest in Manistee County. The charges filed in Kent County accused Miklosovic of sexually assaulting the girl at Miklosovic's Grand Rapids home. The woman also faced related charges in Van Buren and Manistee counties, but prosecutors there agreed to drop those charges in exchange for her plea in Kent County. http://www.mlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-25/1118185612298580. xml&storylist=mibusiness |