Attorney hopes for plea deal in underage-sex case

FARMINGTON — Plans for a plea bargain are still a very real option, but an attorney for a former Bountiful Junior High School teacher charged with having sex with a 13-year-old male student says he still needs more time to gather information before negotiating a plea in earnest.

Linda Nef, 46, his client, waived her preliminary hearing Friday and will be arraigned May 5. She appeared before Judge John Morris in 2nd District Court.

She is charged with rape of a child and forcible sodomy on a child, both first-degree felonies. Prosecutors contend that the Utah history teacher engaged in sexual activity with the boy when he was 13. He is now 14.

Another teacher at the same school, Valynne Bowers, 39, also faces charges of rape and forcible sodomy, both first-degree felonies, for allegedly having sexual contact with the same boy. Her charges are less serious, relatively speaking, because she is accused of having sex with the boy when he was 14 instead of 13. Bowers, a math teacher, is on administrative leave.

Nef went to police in March and confessed what had taken place in her situation. She then resigned from the Davis School District.

Police said neither Nef nor Bowers, a math teacher, knew of the alleged sexual behavior of the other.

Nef's lawyer, Sean Druyon, said Friday that he had already arranged for Nef to voluntarily undergo a psycho-sexual exam. The results of that testing, as well as other information, are still being gathered, and once he has everything, Druyon said, he plans to forward it to prosecutors so that they can begin to negotiate a plea agreement.

"What we want the reports to show is that she is not a pedophile, that she was put in a situation where she acted in a way that she normally wouldn't, and that she's not someone that's a high risk to the community," he said.

Druyon insisted he was not simply "trying to get someone off" of serious criminal charges, but wanted prosecutors, the courts and victim advocates to gain a full understanding of Nef so an appropriate penalty can be imposed.

"We just want it to be fair," Druyon said.

Druyon said mitigating factors in cases like these can include such things as how many times there was sexual contact, the mental and emotional challenges faced by the perpetrator and the juvenile, as well as the juvenile's family, the perpetrator's family situation, the results of psychological testing and other matters.

Bowers' next court date is April 13.

E-MAIL: lindat@desnews.com