OVINGTON, Ohio – A Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader faces prison time after being indicted by a grand jury Thursday for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a teenage student while teaching at an Ohio high school, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
The Kenton County grand jury in Covington, just south of Cincinnati, indicted Sarah Jones on first-degree sexual abuse and unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited acts. Each charge carries up to five years in prison, if Jones is found guilty.
Cheryl Jones, the cheerleader’s mother, was indicted on a charge of tampering with physical evidence related to her daughter’s case.
The lawyer representing the mother and daughter, Charles T. Lester Jr., said both women will plead not guilty.
“Sarah has maintained her innocence. The indictment of her mother is completely baseless,” Lester said in a statement to the Enquirer.
Sarah Jones resigned from her post at Dixie Heights High School in Edgewood, Ohio, last November, after five years teaching English. She was 26 at the time.
The cheerleader appeared on a number of national TV shows in 2009 after launching a legal campaign against website The Dirty.com, which had posted pictures of her with comments saying she had had sex with Bengals players and had two sexually transmitted infections.
In January, U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman found that TheDirty.com was not shielded from liability, a decision that the website has appealed to the sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, the Enquirer reported.
