A female teacher in Texas will spend just 60 days in prison for sexually assaulting a young teen student over the course of three years. Further, that sentence has been delayed since the teacher has recently given birth (the victim is not the father).
Marka Bodine, 32, on Wednesday was given the light sentence, along with 10 years of probation and registering as a sex offender for life, a move that has irked the district attorney’s office, according to ABC 13. Prosecutors had asked for Bodine to get 20 to 40 years in prison for her crimes. The lenient sentence came after the victim, his parent, and Bodine’s doctor spoke in court.
“I think no small part of an explanation for this sentence may lie in any psych info they provided to the court,” criminal defense attorney Christopher Downey told ABC.
Downey added that Bodine’s gender likely played a role in her light sentence.
“By all accounts, this is an unusual outcome. I am sure that the gender of the person on trial, the fact that this was a woman accused of having sex with a young boy, that’s gonna factor into it as well,” he told the outlet.
Bodine met her victim, who has not been named due to his age and status as a sexual assault victim, while teaching English at Tomball Intermediate School in Tomball, Texas. The victim testified that the relationship began when Bodine asked for the teen’s phone number so they could play the popular video game Fortnite and then started routinely texting and calling him. The victim testified that he and Bodine spoke for hours about his family life and his parents’ divorce.
“I never had a person I could talk to about my feelings,” the victim said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “I was starting to love her in a way.”
Bodine began sexually assaulting the boy shortly after his 13th birthday, ABC reported.
Bodine even moved into the apartment complex where the victim lived after she divorced her husband. The victim’s family later moved to the south side of Houston in July 2018, but Bodine would drive to his new home two to four times a month for the next three years, ending in March 2021. Between April 2020 and February 2021, Bodine also sent the boy explicit photographs of herself.
The abuse ended shortly before the victim turned 16. The teenager told the court that after Bodine stopped seeing him, he struggled since he had always been able to talk to her about his family life. Soon, however, he realized that their relationship was inappropriate and that he was the victim of abuse.
“It ruined me,” he said in court, according to the Chronicle.
The abuse was revealed after Bodine told school officials that she was being harassed by a former student, who was “making threats to report their relationship,” court records said. She claimed the victim had gotten hold of “private photographs and manipulated images of her.”
School officials then learned the student had alleged abuse and had reported Bodine to police. When Bodine learned he had gone to the police, she demanded that he delete the pictures of her on his phone.
“She told me I wouldn’t go to college, that I would go to jail,” the victim testified in court. “She said she would kill herself, go to jail.”
The victim also testified that he considered suicide and spent a week at a mental health clinic.
As part of her probation, Bodine will have to attend sex offender treatment. If she successfully completes deferred adjudication, her conviction will be removed from her record.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.