Stephanie Dickinson, Former Ellicott School Board Member Sentenced For Sexual Relations With 17-Year-Old

A former Ellicott School Board member who pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a 17-year-old boy was sentenced on Wednesday in Colorado Springs.

Stephanie Dickinson, 38, first pleaded not guilty to all counts against her in a late February preliminary hearing but ended up taking a plea deal that involved her pleading guilty in exchange for avoiding prison time and not having any contact with anyone under the age of 18--including her own children, though she may speak to them over the phone.

Dickinson however must register as a sex offender and will spend 10 years to life on sex offender intensive supervised probation.

First arrested in September 2011 when sexts between Dickinson and a 14-year-old friend of her son's were discovered on the boy's phone, it soon came to light that she had had sex multiple times with a second victim.

The second victim was a 17-year-old boy who used to babysit for Dickinson's children and admitted to having sex with her on at least five occasions during the summer of 2008 as well as during his senior year of high school.

Dickinson had also been the boy's babysitter when he was younger.

An affidavit stated that the pair had sex in Dickinson's car in a parking lot as well as in a children's "playhouse" at her home where, according to 7News, Dickinson gave the victim oral sex before engaging in sexual intercourse. The former student also told authorities that he received explicit text messages and pictures from Dickinson during that period. Dickinson asked the victim to not tell anyone about their relationship because it could ruin her marriage and relationship with her children.

Dickinson later sent a similar text to the 14-year-old that read:

You can't tell anyone about this at all because I could lose my family.

Dickinson had begun sexting the 14-year-old after he accompanied her, her husband and two sons on a camping trip to Lake Meredith in August of 2011. After the trip Dickinson allegedly asked the boy for his cell phone number so that she could send him photos from the trip, but the arrest warrant said that Dickinson texted him that she wanted to sneak out of the house to meet with him.

The texts soon escalated to messages like "Baby I will rock ur f***ing world!" after Dickinson talked about having sex with the victim. Shortly after though, the texts were discovered by the victim's sister and Dickinson was taken into custody.

Dickinson's offense carries a prison sentence, but her plea deal allowed her to avoid it. Prosecutors agreed to drop the lesser charges of sending lewd messages to the 14-year-old boy in exchange for Dickinson to plead guilty to sexual assault on the 17-year-old.

In January, Dickinson was granted the right to move to Texas--where she will carry out her probation--because she could no longer find work in Colorado.