Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Feds Slam Teacher With Sex Charge After Allegedly Giving Boy ‘Friends With Benefits’ Bracelet

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Former Connecticut elementary school teacher Alyson Cranick was already facing state charges alleging she had sex with a child who was younger than 13. Now federal prosecutors have charged her with using the internet to entice the child into meeting her for sex. Cranick is being held without bail. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy outlines the allegation federal agents are making against Cranick with former sex crimes prosecutor Sarena Townsend in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Sarena Townsend https://x.com/TownsendSarenaCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A teacher from Connecticut is accused of having sex with an 11-year-old boy and giving him a bracelet that said, best friends forever for life with benefits. Now she's in more trouble. I'll tell you why the feds have now charged Allison Kranich. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Allison Kranich was a teacher at Horace Porter School in Columbia, Connecticut until last year. Last September, Connecticut State

Police said a 12-year-old boy told a relative that he had been involved in a sexual relationship with Kranich in 2022. Prosecutors in Connecticut charged Kranich with a handful of sex crimes related to minors. Now federal prosecutors have charged Kranich with one count of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. According to a criminal complaint, minor victims stated to her that Kranich had raped him and then explained that over the summer of 2022 he would sneak out of the house to meet with Kranich. Kranich would communicate with minor victim on Discord and coordinate with him nights that they should meet. Discord is an internet messaging service. At the time,

that boy was only 11 years old. He later turned 12. The boy told investigators that initially, he and Kranich communicated via iMessage and 12. The boy told investigators that initially he and Kranich communicated via iMessage and Snapchat. The complaint continues. During the summer of 2022, minor victim would sneak out of his house about once or twice a week around 1 or 2 a.m. to meet up with Kranich. This often caused him to be tired during the day, so Kranich would buy him caffeinated drinks such as Mountain Dew and Monster Energy drinks. The complaint, so Kranich would buy him caffeinated drinks such as Mountain Dew and Monster Energy drinks. The complaint says sometimes Kranich would drive the boy to Horace Porter School, where Kranich was a teacher and the boy was a student, and they would have sex in the

backseat of her car. On one occasion, the boy told investigators Kranich was on top of the minor victim while he sat in the backseat and she had sexual intercourse with him. Minor victim disclosed that he never wore a condom while having sex with Kranich, and she told him that she was on this Plan B stuff. Federal investigators write about other things they say back up this boy's story. For instance, one of the boy's neighbors posted a photo of Kranich's car on Facebook because it appeared suspicious. It was parked on the street so often in the middle of the night. Then there was another incident involving Kranich and the boy. Investigators write, minor victim was at Columbia Lake during the day with Kranich. While minor victim was fishing,

Kranich had her hand on his inner thigh and asked him to put his hand on her thigh. The lifeguards observed this and reported it to the police, who later spoke to Minor Victim's father. Minor Victim's father spoke to Kranich about the incident, and she explained that the lifeguards were overreacting because they hated her. The boy told investigators that he and Kranich had initially communicated via iMessage and Snapchat, but then started using Discord because his mom and other adults could see those messages on his phone. The feds say they found 4700 messages between the two of them on Discord. One was on July 21st of 2022. The complaint says Kranich told minor victim she wanted to make him a beaded bracelet with the acronym BFFWB, which means best friends forever with benefits.

However, Kranich told the victim she could not put that acronym on a bracelet because of what it meant. She then said, I will figure out how to do the bracelet thing, but add something so only we know chronic suggested using bff lwb which means best friends forever for life with benefits and minor victims said he liked it agents say cranic then sent the boy a photo of the bracelet on Discord the agents wrote cranic then coached minor victim on how to respond when asked about the meaning of the bracelet telling him to tell people it means best friends for life we're better and to make sure he does not tell anyone that the bracelet is about her there are many messages between krannick and the

boy they're almost the type of messages you would see between two school-aged kids but some are also very manipulative where krannick says she will cry if the boy does not meet up with her police wrote in an arrest warrant that kranich downplayed any messages she exchanged with the student and she said she was comforting him because he was having trouble at home while kranich faces state charges for alleged crimes involving that student she now faces that federal enticement charge the world can be a really scary place and you don't always know who's a friend or a foe especially when you're talking to people online truthfinder.com is a website that can help you with that I have a family so I use truthfinder for unlimited searches

on people we meet especially my son I've covered way too many stories about sex offenders and other criminals to know that you cannot be too careful and truthfinder will actually show you the sex offenders who live near you which is really helpful i also use truthfinder at work it's great for that i even have run background checks on myself my family and neighbors just to see what's out there the information that's available is actually kind of shocking so right now you can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash LC crime fix, log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. Let's bring in Serena Townsend. She's a former sex crimes

prosecutor. Serena, what makes this a federal case? Because Alison Kranich was already facing state charges for these horrible allegations involving this poor kid. Now she faces a federal charge. That's right. And so it might sound strange. It might feel like double jeopardy, but it's actually not. The state case charges have to do with the actual acts of sexual abuse, whereas the federal case is enticing a minor. And that has obviously what to do with the acts itself. But the situation is, if you are charged with a state crime for sex abuse, you can still be charged federally for enticing a minor. Because the charge basically says that if you use any mail or internet or any means of interstate commerce to entice or don't know that. Your cell phone can be considered that tool to facilitate criminal allegations and facilitate criminal activity.

And so if you use your cell phone to entice a minor to engage in sexual acts, you can be charged criminally on the federal level, even though you're already charged on the state level for the actual acts themselves. So this is 18 U.S. Code 2422, coercion and enticement. And you're right. That's exactly what it says. Whoever using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States knowingly persuades, induces, entices or courses any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense or attempts to do so shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 10 years for life.

So it's just the mere act of trying to get this kid. Allegedly, she hasn't been proven guilty um at this point she's innocent until proven guilty but it's the act of her trying to get him to sneak out of the house it's not even the sexual act it's her trying to get him to engage in these things over the that's right yes and so the fact that they have those text messages will prove you know will provide the proof that they need in order to sustain this charge the texts themselves are the evidence so what makes a federal prosecutor or you know an agency investigating this type of crime what what makes them say you know what we're going to pursue this because we have covered a ton of these cases on Crime Fix.

And these cases always seem to start with the teacher possibly reaching out to the student on the internet, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, one of those services. Those are all internet-based services. And this is a lot of the time the communication starts that way, even on the phone. So why this case and why not all of the others? Because if you really wanted to send a message that we're taking a stand and we're not going to put up with this stuff anymore, wouldn't you be doing that with all of the cases? That's such a really good point. And it just goes to show you how our judicial system works. Essentially, you're right.

There's every opportunity for almost all of these cases to be prosecuted federally. There's constantly evidence via cell phone, text messages, pictures, videos, sometimes as well, that exist. And so it really has to do with discretion, to be honest with you. Is there an appetite for prosecution on the federal level by the feds? Sometimes that just means, do they have enough evidence? Do they have a lot of evidence? Do they have a cooperative complainant who's willing to testify in multiple different arenas? And so,

yeah, I mean, really there are opportunities to prosecute many different people for this very same crime. But again, you know, the feds don't like to go forward on a case unless and until they have as much evidence as they know that they need to get proof beyond a reasonable doubt and get a win. They are very different from state prosecutors in the state. You know, typically they'll prosecute a case. And even if they feel like they think they have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but they're not positive that they're going to win at trial, they'll still prosecute the case. But the feds are just very, very picky. And typically they will not take a case unless they absolutely know that they can win it.

The allegations in this case, I mean, all of these cases, the allegations are really, really disturbing. I mean, these are kids, and teachers are entrusted to care for children. I mean, I have a son, I think about my son going to school, and when I send my son to school, I expect him to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, you name it, I expect him to be in a safe environment and I'm just like I don't get it I don't get it I don't get why these people are ending up in these positions of a power and

in this case she's the kids like I'm tired according to his forensic interview documented in the criminal complaint I'm tired but so because he's tired she goes out and buys him energy drinks instead of maybe like taking a step back according to the complaint and saying you know what maybe this is wrong maybe you should be in bed at night you know at your house with your family because you're 11 years old but her solution was to buy him energy drinks. This is one of the worst cases that I have seen, to be honest. You know, we do see, unfortunately, more and more of these cases popping up, even, you know, particularly with the female teachers and male students. But a lot of times, and I'm not saying that this is still right, it's still illegal. A lot of times you do see that the teenagers are, you know, 15,

16, 17 years old. Again, it's still a crime. It's still not good. And it's still really immoral, especially as a teacher. That being said, this is really a child. This is not, you know, we say minor, we say underage, we say teenager, but this is an 11-year-old child. This is a very, very young person. So this kind of case, and then yes, again, like you're saying, this child was saying, I'm tired. I mean, it's really, really sad, the kind of text messages, the content that you see. It's not flirtatious really on any level. It's like she really manipulated this poor child into doing all of the things that he had to do with her, despite the fact that he seemed to be the more mature one in that conversation, trying to back off, trying to find any sort of excuse to

stop this from happening. I'm tired. You know, my foot hurts because he had sustained an injury playing soccer. He was really trying. And it just shows you how aggressive and manipulative this woman has been to him. And it's really frightening to see. You're a former sex crimes prosecutor. So you've dealt with cases like this many times um where where do people i mean we've heard all of the theories over the years i mean that people were abused themselves as children but you know when it comes to women i think people think you know a woman should have some maternal instincts especially somebody who's a mother so how are women where is this coming from I mean what do

you think is going on you know what we have to look at women the same as men and if they're a criminal they're a criminal you know you're right they should have a motherly instinct but a father should also have a fatherly instinct and unfortunately this is just some sort of mental breakdown or something wrong with this person. This is this is if obviously proven to be true. This is something that nobody could understand unless you have the same problem. Honestly, I don't know. You're right. I've prosecuted a lot of cases. I've prosecuted teachers. I don't know where it comes from. It's bad enough when you have a teacher who begins some illicit and illegal activity with a teenager or, you know, somebody close to

adulthood. But this is, this is really horrific. This is like levels of child abuse that is just not explainable, to be honest. We do see it, but I can't explain what's going on in her mind and why she would ever do something like this. Do you see the feds maybe taking on more of these cases in other jurisdictions? You know, I hope they do. I really hope they do. It's hard because you don't want to re-traumatize people either. And this poor child is going to have to participate in multiple prosecutions now. You do hear a lot. I used to hear a lot as a prosecutor when survivors of sexual abuse would come to my office. A lot of times they were very reluctant to proceed. It's not easy to re-traumatize yourself to talk about this stuff over and over and over again. And, you know, a prosecutor is very clinical when they ask these questions. And sometimes it feels very difficult just being in that office, let alone being in a courtroom and facing the person who abused you and having to point them out and say, this is the person who did it.

And then have your credibility checked on cross-examination. It's really difficult. And so I do hope the feds take on more of these cases, but I hope that they do it sensitively because it's very difficult for the survivors to have to go through this multiple times. Even just one time is hard enough no doubt thank you serena townsend we appreciate it thank you so much for having me and that's it for this episode of crime fix i'm anjanette levy thanks so much for being with me i'll see you back here next time