Law&Crime Sidebar - Teacher Raped Student Before Trying to Destroy Evidence: Cops

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Oklahoma teacher Brittany Lee Gray faces rape charges after investigators say she engaged in inappropriate communications and physical contact with a student. Detectives also claim Gray searched “how to delete data” after the alleged interactions. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber dissects the case with former felony prosecutor Andrea Lewis.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you or a loved one have suffered physical or mental health issues due to video games, visit https://vgclaims.com/Sidebar to answer less than 10 questions and check your eligibility to file a claim!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A woman who taught high school out in Oklahoma has now been arrested and has been accused of raping a student. It has become a familiar story around the country. We are going to dig into the details of this case, the charges she's facing, the investigation, what a possible defense could be, and also what is behind this apparent surge in cases like this. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey, everybody, this is a law and crime legal alert. So recent allegations against the multi-billion

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30-year-old mother of two, Brittany Lee Gray, is facing charges that she raped a student and then tried to get rid of the evidence. That's what we're talking about. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation officials said that police requested their help looking into a report of misconduct at Blair High School between a teacher and a student. Once they had probable cause, OSBI agents, they were able to get a warrant for Gray's home. By the way, just so you know, we're talking about the geography here. So Blair, Oklahoma is a small town southwest of Oklahoma City.

Its population in 2023, according to Google, was only about 700 people. Gray is poorly teaching in her hometown. So you can kind of imagine that her arrest and her subsequent booking into the Jackson County Jail last week, that may be the talk of the town. And I'm also curious about how that might affect jury selection. We'll talk about that in a minute. But after the search at Gray's home, investigators say they determined that Gray, had both inappropriate communication and physical contact with this student multiple times. According to local news station, KSWO, agent search Gray's electronic devices.

And they found evidence that she had traveled between Blair and Martha. That's another small town in Jackson County where the victim reportedly lived. Now, KSWO also reports that court records show that Gray deleted messages between herself and the student after Googling or allegedly Googling how to delete data. and what law enforcement is able to get off of devices, okay, if true, not great. And investigators also report that the student himself admitted to this relationship last year. Court record show a criminal warrant was issued on January 23rd. She was arrested the next day.

She posted a $25,000 bond on Monday, and she is charged with second-degree rape and destroying evidence. And we're going to get into those charges. But before we get into this any further, I want to bring back onto the show, former felony prosecutor, Andrea Lewis, to talk more. about this answer thanks so much for coming on appreciate it thank you for having me what are your you know initial thoughts about this case if you follow us here on sidebar this is a very common occurrence that we're seeing unfortunately teachers accused of abusing students you know you're 100% right and not only do you see this a lot of course i mean it's really it's very becoming very

prevalent i think it's probably been very prevalent but with the social media and things like that. We're certainly getting a lot more information on it these days. But this happens far more than I think most people imagine. In my current practice, I do civil work where I represent victims who have been, you know, preyed upon by teachers and coaches and others in the school setting. And, you know, I think that your viewers would be horrified to know how much more frequent this this type of thing is i think we all like to think that this is the you know the one off or a scenario that really just doesn't happen very often but unfortunately in this day and age that's just not the case is there a common through line about why these things happen

do we really understand why these things happen you mentioned social media is it the electronic information that is bringing this more to the light it's much harder to cover up than if this happened you know 20 years ago or something like that i think you just hit the nail on the head at least in terms of the ability to prove that these things happen, right? So maybe if something happened 20 or 30 years ago, it becomes a he said, she said, there weren't cell phones, there wasn't this where everybody's got a camera in their pocket 24-7. You know, what I see a lot in the cases that I deal with now are that teachers, coaches, you know, all of these different individuals who are authority figures in school,

They tend to communicate with students for better or worse through electronic means. Now, one thing that comes up a lot is, is that permitted by school policy? Because I'll tell you, I don't think that it should be. Many schools prohibit that. But we know that students tend to use their mobile devices for basically everything. So when teachers or coaches or after school counselors or things like that are trying to get a hold of students, even for legitimate purposes, many times they are using social media platforms, messaging apps, or just text messages, traditional text messages, to communicate with these students.

But it's that direct line of communication that often puts the children at much greater risk because there is no oversight. Their parents aren't looking at those chats. The schools aren't looking at those chats, and many times that can lead to something bad. One thing to say whatever this electronic evidence might be. And to be clear, we don't have a lot of details about this story. So we're trying to piece together what we can. But you put that to the side. Is there any way she could potentially defend from allegedly deleting the data and allegedly looking up how to delete the data if the allegations are true? To me, that speaks volumes.

You know you've done something wrong if you're trying to cover your tracks. I mean, that to me is I don't know how she could ever possibly defend having a sexual relationship with a child, if that is, in fact, what happened here, of course, there is no defense to that. But I mean, the fact of just her own culpability and knowing that she did something wrong, whether it be what most likely, I would imagine we find out here, is that these are sexual conversations that she's deleting out of a phone or whatever this device is. I don't know if it's a tablet or a phone. That in and of itself shows that she knows that what she was doing was something that is either at best, something she shouldn't be doing, but, you know, certainly likely something that was criminal.

By the way, again, I want to emphasize this. We still don't have a lot of details about all this, but assuming no one knew about this, okay, so you mentioned the idea how teenagers and students, everybody's on their phones, parents don't see what's going on, that's one thing. In cases that you deal with, if this is a situation where no one saw them to, together. How does that work? If she has a family, he has a family, small town. I don't get how nobody would have seen this. But you tell me, is it, is it just happened so much? They're very careful about where these things allegedly happen, which by the way, you know, it's interesting. You'd be so careful to make sure no one sees you, not so careful, not to leave a digital footprint.

Right. And so here's what happens many times is that the student and teacher that they, they've oftentimes meet either at school or through some type of school-related function. And then many times what you see is that relationship develops. And there are almost always people that know or people that suspect. And I'll say this too. Schools have policies and training or they're supposed to in place to identify these types of grooming behaviors, to identify these types of unhealthy or inappropriate relationships before they get to the point where they turn sexual. Oftentimes what I see when I'm looking back and analyzing these relationships, where was the school when this started? How did no one from the school know this? There are often red flags

all over the place that everybody either is just burying their head in the sand or they're not trained appropriately to identify. That could be removing the students from the campus. Many times teachers actually lead with students in their cars. That could be these very frequent communications with a particular student. Oftentimes when you look back at the relationship and what people knew and when they knew it, many times you see that there were a lot of people that suspected that something that was inappropriate was going on and they just didn't act. And I'm not suggesting that's what happened here. As you noted, we don't know exactly what happened here. But that does tend to be a common theme in these types of cases.

talking about a small town first thing i thought about is jury selection this goes to a trial at a future date if it does can you keep it there how did she get a fair and impartial jury if this is really you know small town does it have to be moved a different venue talk to me about that i mean you know that only time will tell i think uh depending on how small this town is and the way that it's been described sounds like it is very small they may very well need to move it to to another town in order to get a fair venue. Ultimately, that'll be up to the judge. But, I mean, I think the inquiry there is going to be bigger.

How many schools are in this town? Is this the school that all of the children in town or that the majority of children in town go to? If so, it's going to be much more difficult to get a jury of people who aren't somehow connected to the people involved or the school involved. So it's a real consideration. It's one of the first things I thought about.

But I also tell you what I thought about. I thought about the charge here. So we did our research on this. If you know it differently, correct me if I'm wrong. But under Oklahoma law, our understanding is that to prove second degree rape, the prosecution would really need to prove three things here. So first, that there was sexual intercourse. Second, that it happened with a person who is not the spouse of the defendant. And then the law actually provides multiple instances that could fulfill the third prong.

So like the victim being under the age of 16 or the defendant is an employee of a state agency like a school. Or there's another scenario that the victim was between the ages of 16 and 20, but they were a student at a school where the defendant, an adult was employed. The age of consent in Oklahoma, by the way, understanding is 16. But if the alleged perpetrator is in that position of trust or authority like a teacher, then there's really a problem with consent here. That's my understanding, Andrea. And if that's the case, what does that tell you about how prosecutors may move forward with this case? Well, you know, I think there's a lot that's left to be that we need to figure out. out here. Number one, the age of this victim. Number two, the, it certainly sounds like from all

accounts that this was a teacher, that this was an authority figure at the school where the student was, obviously that matters under some of the various laws. But I mean, I think we're going to need more information to determine whether these charges are really going to be the only charges that they file, given how early on it is in the case. They may bring other charges. As you noted many jurisdictions have enhanced penalties for situations where it's an authority figure that is the one who is perpetrating the sexual abuse. So that clearly seems like this is the indication here. So will the charges change over time? Only time will tell. But I think we may see some more charges coming down the pipeline. Because under the law, right, they give them multiple avenues, right?

It might not just be the age, but if they're in that position of authority and power and influence and control. That's why consent can't be on the table. Now, I am curious. If she takes this to trial, our understand is this is a prison sentence that could be one to 15 years under Oklahoma. I think you have to serve 85% of that sentence in order to be eligible for release. Do you think that if she takes this to trial and gets convicted, it would be towards the higher side or the lower side? I know that's a difficult question because you don't have the full details here. But, you know, If she, this is a first time offense for her or something like that, what do you typically see in these kinds of cases? Well, let's assume for argument's sake that it is her first time offense.

I think that's a fair assumption, given that she's working in a school capacity unless they miss something in her background. But it's probably going to turn out that this is her first offense. With that, if we look at all of these cases, and there are many that we can analyze and look at in terms of all around the country, what the sentences are, What we see many times is that women tend to get, not in every case, but in many cases, a lesser sentence than men who are perpetrating these same crimes against female children. Why is that? I don't know. I mean, certainly we would assume that this should be the same for everybody, but that does tend to be what happens many times. I don't know if she would get 15 years.

I certainly, I think that anybody that abuses a child that is perpetrators, multiple times, multiple times, right, having sexual. relationship with a child, they deserve to spend many years in prison. But only time will tell. I've seen other cases, though, where people who have committed the same exact crime multiple times have walked away with nothing but a probationary sentence. Really? So, yeah. How's that justified? Well, the, you know, it really depends on on the courts and oftentimes they rely upon the fact that the perpetrator has no prior record. I will also say that's something that I see a lot, and I think it's because of the relationship between the parties. Many times, and I'm dealing with this in a case right now, the child oftentimes

feels so close to the teacher, the perpetrator, that they don't want to pursue a case, that they feel like that there is either a close bond, that they sometimes they say that they are in love with the person, because this is someone who many times they've known for years that they've grown close to that that's an interesting point so let's say whoever you know this student is this alleged victim says prosecution not cooperating with you i don't want to testify against this teacher i mean it's not their choice whether someone is prosecuted or not we always talk about oh someone will press charges it's really the prosecution it's really the prosecutors in the case who decide so and whether they present it to a grand jury but if the if the alleged victim this case chooses not to

participate? Are they compelled to participate? Or can the prosecution put on a case without the testimony of that alleged victim? That's an excellent question. And that's really the key here is it's not that the prosecution is bound by the victim's wishes. As you noted, prosecution, they're representing the state. It's their duty, their obligation to bring charges where they see fit to protect the community. But the question is, can they? prove the charges without the cooperation of a victim. So if the answer is, well, we've got chats and messages, maybe photographs or clear indicators, objective evidence, or maybe witnesses, where we can prove this with or without the cooperation of the victim, then no problem.

You know, move forward the cooperation of the victim and their desire to proceed with the case really is not as big of a deal where the problem comes in is if it, if it amounts to a he said, she said, where the case largely is dependent upon the victim. In those circumstances, it becomes much more difficult. And then, you know, the victim's wishes really drive the prosecution and potentially the sentence because they can't prove the case. Can they compel the person to testify? Absolutely. They can always compel the person to testify. But the question then is, what kind of testimony are you getting? Is the person going to be forthcoming? Are they going to give all the details if they're withholding the information or being tight-lipped because of their own feelings

for the person, because they're scared, because they don't want something to happen to someone they care about. How good is that case actually going to be? I have three defenses here. I want you to tell me if any of them are viable, again, without knowing the full details of the case. One, she says there was no sexual contact whatsoever. Okay, there was nothing like that. B, argue that the evidence that has been obtained against her, particularly from her electronic devices, was obtained unlawfully. Or three, and this one, I don't really know if there's much water to it, but I'm curious. If she wasn't the direct teacher of this student and this student was of age, again, I don't know the full details, could you still say there's that it fits under the statute?

You know, yes, she was a teacher at the school. Maybe the student was a student, but wasn't, there wasn't that direct, you know, student-teacher relationship. It doesn't fit within the statute. Again, I'm speculating. Those are three defenses I thought about. Tell me what you think about them. Sure. As it relates to the last one, whether this was her direct teacher or not is really not, you know, as relevant.

So, for instance, if we have a child that's having sex with an adult, period, that's against the law. That can be a neighbor, a friend. a family number, anybody. So, you know, the fact that now there may be different multipliers, aggravating factors, enhancements that specifically relate to people in authority figures. In that case, depending on the law there locally, that may come into play, but it wouldn't prevent criminal charges from being brought on the person. It may just affect whether some of those aggravators are, are in fact,

relevant in that particular case. But to your other point, you have, you know, this is a circumstance where, these individuals, I mean, depending on the age, if there was no sex, then what is, you know, then obviously there wouldn't be rape charges brought. I think that would be a defense, of course. If there was no penetration, if there was no actual sexual relationship, then, of course, that would call into question any type of rape charges that would be brought. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. Generally speaking, when they bring these charges, they don't do it lately and they normally have a pretty solid case to do so. To your other point regarding the

text messages, so that's really going to be dependent on what evidence do you have? If they have a witness or they have DNA evidence or they have a video evidence, then it really doesn't matter one way or the other, whether the text messages come in or they don't. Of course, the case is going to be stronger if they have some type of very damning text messages that we know she's right to delete. But that being said, the case wouldn't necessarily be dependent on those messages. So I think only time will tell in terms of what how strong the evidence is and what they have here. But, you know, based on what we know now, it seems like that they have quite a bit to go on. By the way, we were able to find this teacher spotlight that was posted by the Blair

Public School Facebook page that said Gray had taught science, yearbook, financial literacy. The post, by the way, has been removed. And local affiliate COCO reports that Gray was also a counselor at the high school, which is interesting to think about considering the allegations. And KSWO reports that Gray was relieved of her position at Blair Public Schools in 2003, according to public court records Gray and her husband divorced in 2023. They share custody of their two kids, a boy and a girl. Let me ask you this, Andrew, before we wrap up, how does her personal life play into this case? And do you think they're investigating right now, whether there could be any other victims

or allege victims of this woman? In almost all circumstances, they are, of course, investigating to see if there's a more broad, like a wide-scale problem there. They haven't reported anything like that that I have seen so far. But certainly, you know, when this type of things happen, many, it's very common for them to send notices out throughout the school to post on social media.

And oftentimes, if there are other victims, people will come forward, call in things of that nature. I haven't seen anything like that in this case yet, but that is fairly common. Do your other question about her personal life, as with any case, any time someone committed a crime and they have things going on in their personal life, they often, their defense attorneys will often bring that up at trial, really mainly during the sentencing phase in order to try to excuse their behavior. I don't really think that's going to hold much water here. many people go through divorces and have personal problems, but they don't prey upon children.

They don't, you know, victimize, sexually victimized children. So, you know, that I don't think that's going to get very far with the judge. But all right. Well, we shall see where this goes. Andrea Lewis, thank you so much for taking the time and great seeing you. Always, always appreciate your perspective. Thank you very much for having me. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.