Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Teacher Tried to Cover Up Sex with Student: Cops

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Molly Mersereau was fired from her teaching job at Gulf Breeze High School in Florida last August. She faces several felony charges related to allegations that she had sex with a female student. Sheriff's detectives said Mersereau used another student to try to cover-up her relationship with the teenage girl using a burner phone and a hidden iPad. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the body-worn camera footage of the investigation and Mersereau's arrest in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Dave Aronberg https://www.instagram.com/davearonberg/CRIME 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.

Hello. Hey, you step out for me. Sorry, I didn't see anyone. You're fine. Don't step out. Scared me. A soccer coach and teacher is in handcuffs accused of sex with a female student. I have the video from the investigation into Molly Mercero that was just released. Okay. I have an attorney friend. Would you like his number?

Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Molly Mercero faces some serious charges in Florida's Panhandle. It's sadly the type of case we've come to tell you about all two often. A teacher accused of abusing her position and her power over a young person to have an inappropriate relationship with a student. At least that's the allegation from police and prosecutors. Mercero has been fired from her job at Gulf Bree's High School, where she was a vocational teacher in the hospitality and tourism academy. Mercero had also coached soccer locally in the Pensacola area, and when she was younger, she was a standout playing soccer in college. The

investigation into Mercero started on July 8th, 2025, when a friend of the teacher actually called police and told them that Mercero had told her that she was having sex with a female student. The local PD turned the case over to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office and detectives began investigating right away. They found something very concerning. Molly Mercero and the student had actually been investigated by the school district in April of 24 because someone reported her to the school administrators after seeing Mercero in her car with a female student. The student and Mercero denied that there was anything inappropriate going on, but they admitted they had texted one another. Mercero was given a performance correction notice after the school

determined there was no sexual relationship, but Mercero shouldn't have been texting students or giving them rides in her car according to the administration. Mercero agreed to the following. Ms. Mercero will not allow any students to ride in her personal vehicle. Ms. Mercero will not communicate via text or phone using her personal phone number. To communicate with students, she will use the approved district communication methods, school email, Microsoft Teams. Ms. Mercero will only allow students in her classroom for instructional purposes. Ms. Mercero will not allow students in her classroom to hang out before or after school or during a lunch period.

if a student comes to her in need of mental health support, she will refer them to the appropriate resources at the school, like counselors, administrators. So that's just one of the things that detectives learn, and they were already digging a little deeper. Yeah, I was just think about asking a little bit of giving it like to. Now, a detective weaver with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office went to the students home on July 14th, 2025,

with some really disturbing news. I found this information here. This is a Discord chat between Coach and it looks like Wednesday. Yeah. She picked up a burner phone from. They're talking about instructing her to hide it in her panties or in her bra padding. So it's either with her now or in her room somewhere. I've got the phone number for it.

so I could try calling. Yeah, call it. Do you want to, I assume if she's at therapy, she's probably in a room with the therapist and wife's just in a waiting room or something? She's in the car, yeah. Do you want to call her? I don't know. We'll fill her in. Here, I'll call her right now. So Detective Weaver tells the student's father that Molly Mercero, who they called Coach M, bought a burner phone for his daughter and reveals what would seem to be instructions given to the girl about how to hide this phone. The next day the detectives try to see. sees Mercero's phone, but she's not home. Then on July 16th, 2025, eight days after receiving the report that Mercero was having sex with a student, Detective Weaver went to Molly Mercero's apartment

to collect evidence. Specifically, he had a warrant for her cell phone. Hey there, Molly. I had to Detective Weaver for the sheriff's office. Your name came up in one of my cases. I wonder if we could take a few minutes to talk. Um, about what? Uh, well, I can get into that with her. Probably don't want to hash it all out here on the breezeway, though. Okay. I have an attorney friend. Would you like his number?

Sure. If you want to work through an attorney, we can do that. I do have a search warrant for electronics and the residence. So we will have to collect those today at a minimum. Okay. Is it all right? I can put her in a cell room. Sure.

All right. We'll let you do that. We'll have to follow you in, of course. that interaction with Mercero cut off there because the detective went into her home. Oh, hello. One second. You guys awake? Hey, let me let you go.

The warrant for Mercero's arrest states the detectives found love notes in the student's bedroom, along with a hidden iPad. These notes were numbered to count down the days, and that part of the report is redacted. The report goes on to state these notes appeared to match known samples of Molly's handwriting. Some of these notes were hidden in a hollowed out hardback copy of Harry Potter and the half-blood Prince, the child's family member also located a hidden iPad that they did not purchase for the child. The warrant states that the student denied having a sexual relationship with Molly Mercero when she was interviewed by police and told

detectives the love notes found came from an ex-girlfriend from her freshman year. All of these things were incredibly concerning huge red flags. Kids should not be spending all of this time with a teacher getting notes from them, hidden iPads, burner phones. It's all completely inappropriate. On July 29th, 2025, Santa Rosa County Sheriff's deputies went to Molly Mercero's apartment to take her into custody. 23 years is the female that said something inside? Yes. Sheriff's office. Sheriff's office, coming to the door. Can you step out for me? Sorry, I didn't see anybody.

You're fine. You don't step out. Scared me. Anybody else in the house? Do you have an active warrant for your arrest right now? Hang on it's gonna pinch me, poke me, stab me, maybe bleed. Knives, guns, needles, anything like that? Only for a 10.15. Do you want some shoes?

Here you got phone, right? Yeah, you have keys so it didn't secure your door too. Would you like us to do with? The keys should be up there and there's a wallet on that counter and I should have sandals right there as well. Do you want to keep her bracelets here? Molly. And then there's a couple things around her neck. Whoever you call to come, look after your head.

look after your dog, will they have access to it? They have a key. And there's just a slide over your head. Do you have anything else on you? Do you want to take anything else with you? Let's walk this way. You know how this is for? I would like to be respectful.

I'm going to wait until my lawyer is present. Yeah, that's fine. The investigation revealed details that led detectives and later prosecutors to file a list of charges against Molly Mercero. She faces five charges right now. Offenses against students by authorities. figures criminal solicitation, a felony of the second degree, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, causing a child to commit an act of delinquency, using a two-way communication device

to facilitate a felony, criminal solicitation, that's a felony of the second degree as well. Whoever you call it, look after your dog, will they have access to it? Okay. They have a key? Yes. Slide over your head? Anything else on you? Do you want to take anything else with you? Speeding on golf carts.

They're doing 32 and a 25. You search you, you don't have anything like in your waistband or not that. I'm not going to do a super end-depth search on you because you are female. If you have anything that I don't catch, due to the search, and you take it under the jail, it could be considered contraband, and that's going to be an additional felony charge. So if you have anything, it's out of your bra, instead of your underwear, anything like that. Just let me know now. Nothing. Go and put your chest on the American flag for me.

What's that? Go ahead. Pour your feet backwards. I'm just trying to make sure that you don't have anything stuffed in your waistband as well. Go and slide in there for me. You want to be buckled up? I'm sorry? Face, here.

Lean back this way to me and then face that way. A little bit of advice, just sit forward. Take some of the pressure off your hands. That way it's not super uncomfortable. Just try to stay like that. If you lean back, you're going to put a lot of pressure on your arms and it's going to make the hang go. It's really, really uncomfortable. Okay. What I walked in? Hey, what's in this little container us right here?

Benazil. Okay. You said can come take. I'm going to bring in Dave Aaronberg. He is the former state attorney for Palm Beach County, now a defense attorney. So, Dave, we have a lot of what defense attorneys will call bad facts in this case. We have love notes that the prosecutors and the police say match the handwriting of Molly Mercero, in the bedroom of this student. We have her investigated previously for inappropriate, you know, contact with students, hidden iPads, burner phones, enlisting another student to cover up this relationship. I mean, a friend of hers reported her. There are, there's a lot going on here. So what are your thoughts when kind of reviewing the facts in this case? The teacher in this case, Anjanet, had a chance to get away with it.

I mean, the school district did not do a great investigation. They made her sign like a pledge. She would be more professional with the students. They took her out of her word that maybe she just, you know, she shouldn't have them in her car. But, you know, that's all it is. And she will be better next time. Well, meanwhile, she's out there having sex with an underage girl. And it was reported to the school administration, but I guess they didn't do much of investigation

because what they did was they said, okay, can I see your phone? They say, yeah, sure, here. Here's my phone. Okay, I don't say anything here. Just don't do it. Don't get too close to with these girls. All right, done. Meanwhile, it was going on under their noses until finally she was arrested.

It does seem a little curious. It seems like there are some questions about. how thorough this investigation was. I mean, you shouldn't be having students in your personal vehicle. That's just creepy. And you shouldn't be texting with them on your phone. I mean, the ick factor is just really high there. She's also talking about her relationships with her students.

Right. She's admitting that. So she admitted what the school district knew is that she's openly talking about her relationships with her students. She has these kids in her car. They hang around her office after. hours and she's alleged to have had sexual relations with the student. Now, the only thing they could not prove was the sexual relations, but if they had done a little more digging, it was there, even though the student was covering for her at first, but it seemed like they just, you know,

asked once and that was it. They all denied it. Okay. Well, go on. It's Red Flag City. I mean, it was it was all right there. They just had to go dig a little deeper, as you said. You know, there are criminal charges now. She's free on bail. She posted bail. She lawyered up right away. You know, somebody told her like, hey, don't talk to the cops. You're going to be in big trouble. I mean, her own friend went to the police and ratted her out. Her own friend was like, this is wrong. So, and then she's like, even though she knows something's going on, she gets a burner phone for this girl according to the police. What, I mean, what on earth? I mean, if you're a defense attorney, I would think you might be like,

like begging the prosecutor for a deal here. Yeah, you have a client who clearly has mental health issues because she got away with it at first and you would think maybe, all right, this is too close for comfort time to stop this. But it only emboldened her. She continued to do it to the point where, yes, she's buying her underage girlfriend a burner phone to the point where enough people know about it that her close friend is so appalled by this conduct. She's the one who rats her out. I mean, like, you can, everyone could tell this was inappropriate. This was wrong. And it was a poorly kept secret. And even though she came close to getting caught

before, she kept pushing it and decided to that I guess this relationship was more important than her career and her future freedom because it was inevitable she was going to be caught. It does seem that way. It does seem that way. My concerns are for this teenage girl, too. who was, they say, in the documents, was trying to cover for her. She's in therapy. We know that from some of the body-worn camera footage, but it may take years of therapy for her to get over this.

Yes, and that's the sad part. You have someone in a position of trust, not just a person who's older, but a person in a position of trust, and they exploit that relationship. That's what makes it so insidious, and that's what makes it all. so sad because you had this underage girl who was going along with it, who was covering for her.

But she can't consent. She's underage. And now once she realizes as she gets older, what was happening, how exploitative it was, it's trauma that doesn't easily go away. I mean, it's going to take years. You saw it with Jeffrey Epstein. You had underage girls that still this day are traumatized by the whole thing. So it's not so. easy just to go to a couple therapy sessions and it's over. Most definitely. It's just a, it's a weird, creepy case, you know, hidden iPads, burner phones. I mean, that's just very, you know, these are allegations, but it shows major criminal thinking, criminal behavior. And why does it always have to be in Florida? I mean, right, Angie Nett? You guys have a lot going on down

there. There's a lot going on in a lot of places, but you also have a lot of people down there, Dave, if that makes you feel better. So maybe it's just more people, more stuff. Well, it's also, it was in Gulf Breeze, right? Which is the panhandle. That's that area where this took place is considered L.A., which is lower Alabama. So that's maybe one way to Florida and say, well, it's not Florida, but no, it's Florida. No, it's Florida.

Yeah. And the Gulf Breeze district has had some bad luck recently. You know, they've had a student who was a high school student who was, a high school student who was, You know, we've covered here on Crime Fix, who was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography. His mother was an assistant principal. She's under investigation with the district for allowing him to walk through the school for a senior walkthrough event, knowing he was under investigation. So they got a lot going on at that school district. Gold Breeze is a beautiful place with amazing beaches.

It is closer to Mobile, Alabama than it is to Tallahassee. It's like another country from Miami. So it is like right across the water from, right across the way from Alabama. But yeah, that place hits above its weight, it seems like, when it comes to these true crime shows. It really does. Well, we'll keep an eye on it.

Dave Ehrenberg, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Right now, Molly Mercero is free on bail. She does not have any future court dates set just yet. She has pleaded not guilty. to all of the charges. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Annette Levy. Thank you so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.