Trainer accused of *** with her student pleads not guilty
Hope Jacoby, 23, is charged with 4 felony counts involving teen boy.
A former athletic trainer at Tustin High School pleaded not guilty today to charges she had a ****** relationship with an athlete at the school for about a year.
Hope Ashley Jacoby, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, is charged with four felony counts of unlawful ****** intercourse, three other felony *** counts, and one felony count of distributing *********** to a minor, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Jacoby, who is out of custody on $100,000 bail, appeared today at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, prosecutors said. She pleaded not guilty and a pre-trial hearing was scheduled for Feb. 25, said spokeswoman Farrah Emani of the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Jacoby is accused of having a ****** relationship with a male student between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 19, 2008, when the victim was 16 and 17 years old. She is accused of having *** with the student several times in her car and at her home, prosecutors said.
"She was an excellent trainer who had worked for two years at the school with no complaints about her work with the athletes and was apparently well liked by the parents," said her attorney, Leonard Levine. "These are unfortunate charges and we'll address them at the appropriate time."
School officials became aware of the alleged relationship in December after finding images on the student's phone that they say were sent by the Jacoby, an Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman said last month.
Before she was hired by the Tustin Unified School District in September 2007, Jacoby was submitted to fingerprinting and a background check like other district employees, which she passed, said district spokesman Mark Eliot.
As a trainer, she was responsible for treating and attending to athletic injuries, under the supervision of coaches, Eliot said.
In late November 2008, Jacoby submitted a letter of resignation to the district, stating that she intended to further her education, Eliot said.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/jacoby-district-school-2286418-spokesman-felony
