A jury in Virginia has found a former Fairfax County middle school teacher guilty on four counts of taking indecent liberties with a child years after he was discovered on a movie date with a 14-year-old student.
Timothy Threlkeld, a former Langston Hughes Middle School vocational education teacher, was sentenced Friday to spend four years behind bars and fined $10,000.
The accuser, now 18 and starting college, testified in detail Tuesday about four incidents in which she says Threlkeld inappropriately touched her and had her inappropriately touch him in a shop room closet at the school. She said she viewed their relationship as that of a boyfriend and girlfriend.
She missed her first week at college to face Threlkeld in court.
At his trial, Threlkeld denied a physical relationship with the former student but said some of his conduct was inappropriate. The jury convicted him based on evidence including 600 pages of text messages between the two and testimony from the victim's sister.
Threlkeld surrendered his teaching license years ago when the inappropriate relationship was revealed in late June 2014, when the teen's older sister caught her with Threlkeld on a planned movie date at Reston Town Center.
Police and school officials were alerted, but the girl told them they had only kissed. No charges were filed.
Threlkeld resigned from his position as a shop teacher at Langston Hughes Middle School in 2015, police said, and he surrendered his teaching license when confronted by Fairfax County Public Schools officials.
In 2017, the teen came forward with new allegations about the physical relationship.
The prosecutor asked in court Tuesday, "Why did you not reveal all the details of what happened?"
"Because I was ashamed that it happened and scared," the teen testified.
