A newly-released trove of police documents is helping to shed light on the case of a 27-year-old Arizona teacher accused of sexually abusing her 13-year-old student.
The reports, first obtained by local outlet KPNX, claim that Las Brisas Academy teacher Brittany Zamora lured her young victim in by setting up a class chatroom and encouraging students to text her while she was out of school. According to the documents — and three female students, who all submitted written statements to the school’s principal warning him of their teacher’s suspicious behavior before the alleged abuse began, to no avail — Zamora had been targeting one of her sixth grade students in particular.
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The abuse reportedly began in February of 2018, when, according to the documents, Zamora’s texts with the boy became increasingly flirtatious. “OMG, I love you,” she allegedly wrote in one message. “Omg lol you’re so cute baby,” another text reportedly read. “I wish you could’ve stayed after with me.”
Suspicious of her son’s increasingly secretive behavior, the boy’s stepmother reportedly installed a parental control app called “Sentry” on his phone in order to monitor his incoming texts. When the word “baby” triggered multiple alerts on the app, the stepmother confronted the boy, who eventually confessed to having a sexual relationship with his teacher.
According to police, Zamora and the student ultimately had sexual encounters on at least four occasions, including one incident that occurred on campus on the night of a school talent show. In addition to the inappropriately sexual texts, police also recovered nude pictures of Zamora from the victim’s cell phone.
At the urging of detectives, the victim’s parents staged a secretly recorded phone call with Zamora, during which they confronted the teacher about the inappropriate behavior. Zamora reportedly confessed to everything and offered to resign from her position, but insisted on meeting with the victim’s parents in person before saying anything else.
“I don’t want to say stuff and have me recorded right now and bring this to court and have me go to jail for the rest of my life,” Zamora during the call, according to KPNX.
Shortly after that call, as she was driving to work at Las Brisas Academy, police pulled Zamora over and arrested her. She was later charged with two counts of molestation of a child, one count of furnishing harmful materials and nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor — charges she later pleaded not guilty to.
During her first court appearance, Zamora reportedly appealed to the judge to be lenient with bond, saying that she, “would love to go home to my husband.” She was later released from jail on $250,000 bond.