Former Twinfield Union teacher faces new charges
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John Buttura STEFAN HARD/TIMES ARGUS |
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: August 19, 2009
BARRE – A former Twinfield Union School teacher accused of sexually exploiting a 16-year-old female student was held without bail on Tuesday after being arrested for the third time in recent months.
John Buttura, a 54-year-old Waterbury Center man, pleaded not guilty yesterday to four separate charges of violating his court-ordered conditions of release.
In the new charges, Buttura is accused of having sex with the victim again, this time at a deer camp in Waterbury where they spent a night together last week, according to court documents. He is also accused of contacting the girl last week on other occasions. When Buttura was arraigned in April on the underlying charge of sexually exploiting a minor, a judge ordered him not to have any contact with the teen.
This is not the first time Buttura has been in trouble for allegedly contacting the girl; prosecutors charged him with violating his conditions of release in May.
Buttura was arraigned on the new charges Tuesday in Vermont District Court in Burlington, after being arrested on Sunday and lodged in Chittenden County. A judge ordered Buttura to be held without the possibility of posting bail, and Buttura will be entitled to a bail review hearing in the near future, according to Washington County State's Attorney Tom Kelly.
The relationship between Buttura and the 16-year-old, which came to light last spring, would have been legal, but in March the state Legislature enacted a new law that prohibits adults in positions of power – such as teachers – from having sexual relationships with minors under their authority.
The sexual exploitation charge Buttura faces is a felony while the five conditions violations are misdemeanors.
In the newest case, the Vermont State Police got a tip from the alleged victim's father that Buttura and his daughter had been contacting each other, according to the affidavit supporting the charges.
A sworn statement written by the teenage girl, which outlines her contact with Buttura starting last Tuesday, makes up the bulk of the affidavit. The statement was written after police asked the father of the alleged victim to bring his daughter to the police station.
The girl, now 17 years old, wrote that she went to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. for an appointment on Tuesday and told Buttura about the appointment using a computer. Buttura met her at the hospital and they went to a mall and spent most of the day together, she wrote. Buttura was worried about being seen with the girl and gave her a walkie-talkie so they could communicate, the girl wrote.
"We spoke through the radios while parked at the mall," the statement says. "John Buttura did not want to be seen in public because his face has been on the news."
The girl wrote that she convinced Buttura to help her pick out some new clothes for school and they later went to a waterfall area.
"We sat there, held hands and talked," she wrote. "We watched the waterfalls."
The next day, the alleged victim got out of work at about 2 p.m. and talked to Buttura using the walkie-talkie, the affidavit states. They met at Central Vermont Medical Center and then went to a deer camp, the teenager wrote. They stayed there for about two hours and talked about their relationship, she stated.
The day after that they met up again and sat in a vehicle parked at Elmore Pond and talked for hours, according to the affidavit.
Buttura said what he did was wrong, the teenager wrote in her statement. But he also said he "did not want to lose me," the alleged victim wrote. "He told me that he is getting a divorce from his wife and that he is living in the basement."
Later that day, the teenager told her parents that she was going to Thunder Road with a friend and instead spent time with Buttura, according to court documents.
They got sandwiches from Subway and ate dinner, the girl wrote.
"I spent the night in Waterbury with John Buttura," she wrote. "We had sexual intercourse because we knew it was our last day. I wanted to show how much I loved him. He kept saying we don't have to do this."
Kelly hasn't decided whether he will file another charge of sexually exploiting a minor against Buttura for the sexual contact alleged in the new charges. He noted that Buttura is no longer the girl's teacher.
Kelly also hasn't decided how he will approach a bail review hearing and whether he will have the alleged victim take the witness stand.
"We've got to decide what we're going to do," he said.
Buttura has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but if convicted, he could face more than seven years in prison.
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