2nd trial starts in April for former Moab teacher in sex case

A second trial has been scheduled for a former Moab schoolteacher and coach who served prison time for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl before the Utah Supreme Court overturned the conviction.

Arielle Beck, 29, will stand trial in a Salt Lake courtroom beginning April 20.

Beck was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing Kelly Sowell, a student who hanged herself two years after Beck's conviction. Last year, however, the state's high court ruled 7th District Judge Lyle R. Anderson overstepped the line of impartiality when he posed 48 questions to Beck while she was on the witness stand, possibly influencing the jury.

Sowell and Beck met in the summer of 2002 when Beck was an assistant softball coach for the teen's team. Beck later volunteered as a teaching assistant in the girl's English class.

Prosecutors said Beck groomed the teen for a sexual affair, sending her love letters and e-mails.

Beck has been charged with one count of sodomy, a first-degree felony, and three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. She also faces misdemeanor charges for child abuse, supplying alcohol to a minor and allowing an unlicensed person to drive.

— Aaron Falk