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Monday, August 29, 2005

Teacher Arrested in Chaparral Teen Case


Associated Press
      CHAPARRAL — An elementary school teacher was charged with molesting a 14-year-old boy, and authorities accused her husband of trying to bribe the youth's mother and the teen to drop the allegations against his wife.
    Donna McKnight, 52, and Ron McKnight, 49, both of Chaparral, were arrested Monday at a Las Cruces motel, the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department said.
       The McKnights were being held in the Dona Ana County Detention Center on $50,000 bond each, the department said.
       Donna McKnight was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor, and her husband is charged with one count of bribery of a witness, the agency said.
       Donna McKnight is a second-grade teacher at Vista Hills Elementary School in El Paso, the district confirmed.
       She met the 14-year-old boy on Aug. 7 when he was doing work at her mother-in-law's house in Chaparral, according to court records.
       She is accused of offering him to rub suntan lotion on her. She then removed her clothes and told the boy to touch her intimate parts, court records said.
       She also is accused of forcing him to touch her and trying to kiss him. She also propositioned him a second time, court records state.
       The boy told his mother about the encounter and they reported it to authorities.
       Ronald McKnight is accused of offering to pay for two years of college and buy four-wheel-drive vehicles for him, if he and his mother would drop the complaint, investigators said.