Testimony continues in trial of former Miami-Dade teacher accused of sex with student
MIAMI - Testimony continued Thursday in the trial against Jason Meyers, a former Miami Palmetto Senior High School teacher, accused of having sex with an underage student.
A former student of Meyers' took the stand on the second day of testimony, describing how he preyed on her and how quickly things escalated.
The student, who was a junior at the time, said Myers was her creative writing teacher.
She said she viewed him as a mentor and was flattered when he took a special interest in her. She said she began spending her scheduled lunch with him in his classroom and they would talk about writing.
She described when their relationship started to change.
"The conversations maybe 40 or 50 percent of the time were just friendly as if we were just friends. That was the nature of the relationship I thought, we are friends. But this friend told me that he was really attracted to me, and wanted to have sex with me and wanted to kiss me. The conversations would go into sexual topics. Or he would ask about my sex life or tell me about his. Or even tell me about dreams he had about me."
Prosecutors portrayed Meyers as a predator who used sexual themes in his creative writing class to entice a naive, then 17-year-old student into having sex with him at least three times. The alleged victim also took the stand Thursday revealing more about her experience.
"Over the course of time, I really questioned how much of anything he said was authentic to get to know me, to grow a friendship with me or how much of that was because he had a plan."
Meyer's attorneys argued that a student on the verge of adulthood knew the difference between right and wrong.
Meyers was married at the time. His wife worked at the school and was pregnant. The pair also had three other children.
Meyers, 47, was arrested back in February of 2016 after he allegedly had sex with a 17-year-old student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School.
A police report said Meyers had two sexual encounters with the girl, both in a classroom after school. One of the instances allegedly involved sexual intercourse and the other oral sex.
Miami-Dade Schools Police investigated the matter which led to Meyers' arrest.
That same police report says Meyers gave no statement after his arrest.
He was fired by the Miami-Dade school district following his arrest.
His trial continues this week.
