Fargo Public Schools official staff photo
We’ve been following Peterson’s case for the past week, and her verdict was decided on Friday. Peterson did not teach students in classrooms, but was a behavioral health technician charged with helping students at risk for truancy. Her charges were promoting a sexual performance by a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a child, and the jury decided she was not guilty on both counts.
As first reported by Inforum, 33-year-old Ashley Peterson was a Davies High School behavioral technician and nanny to the superintendent’s kids, until she was reported to social services by her best friend, Heather Cantrell. She was Peterson’s coworker at the school for years, and they had become very close. She was called to testify through a subpoena. On the witness stand, Cantrell said while she and Peterson met for drinks on October 8th, Peterson admitted that she saw the 16-year-old boy’s nude body on Snapchat, and she “reciprocated” the student’s photo. Peterson’s attorney, Adam Justinger, said Cantrell was drunk at the time, and that she closed a bar tab of more than $90 that night. He finds that the prosecution is basing their case on witness testimony that is “not credible.” He says that prosecutors have no sexually explicit texts or nude photos in evidence.
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