Written by Kathryn Wall 12:00 AM, Mar. 26, 2011 |
Family, friends and counselors who knew Alison Peck said in court Friday she was working hard to get her life back on track in the year after pleading guilty to statutory rape.
Peck, formerly a teacher at Greenfield, admitted to a sexual relationship with a student. She was given five years' probation, with a suspended sentence of five years in prison, but that suspension was revoked Friday in a hearing prompted by Peck's failure to register as a sex offender during her probation.
Peck says she's now pregnant with her boyfriend's child. She has not received any kind of prenatal care but thinks she's about three months along.
The child will likely be born behind bars, a fact that upset her former counselor, Kris Hamilton.
Hamilton, the licensed professional counselor who directed the sex offender program Peck was ordered to complete, said during the hearing Friday that the former teacher spent the first year of the program making good strides and seemed active in the program.
"It was the little things I started to notice," Hamilton said about Peck's slow backslide.
Hamilton said Peck had previously always been well-kept and attentive, but she began avoiding eye contact and her clothes appeared worn and dirty.
Soon after, Hamilton said, Peck's mother and stepfather met with the counselor because they were concerned that Peck was depressed. They described horrible living conditions and character differences that were a strong contrast to the girl they knew who had excelled at music and was in the top of her class at Drury University.
Peck was terminated from Hamilton's program because of her lack of progress, said the counselor, who recommended prison time for Peck because prison programs would be mandatory.
At the end of August, Peck was referred to a psychiatrist, who prescribed four different medications.
That's when Peck's friends -- and Hamilton -- say she changed entirely.
Her friends said she was "like a zombie," that they couldn't speak to her normally and that Peck was lethargic and different.
Several friends and family members testified in the hearing that Peck wasn't herself during the months she failed to register as a sex offender and had two drug tests that came back positive for methamphetamine.
They said the medications she was on changed her personality entirely and made her lazy and lethargic. According to reports from the probation officer, Peck said she took methamphetamine on one occasion to counteract the effects of the drugs.
Peck's attorney, Anissa Bluebaum, said Peck's financial problems were already causing her stress, but problems with Peck's parole officer put her into severe depression.
On Tuesday, Bluebaum filed a civil complaint against the probation officer, Rebecca Martin.
Peck said Martin and the probation officer's brother -- who is referred to in the civil complaint as John Doe -- would go to bars where Peck's band was playing and harass and publicly humiliate her.
"During these times where defendants were intoxicated and patronizing the establishments where Plaintiff performed with her band, the defendants made crude and unwelcome sexual advances toward the Plaintiff," the complaint alleges.
The brother and sister would inform other patrons that Peck was a sex offender, the complaint said.
"Rebecca Martin's brother "John Doe" went so far as to yell out in the crowd that Plaintiff should stop messing around with boys and have sex with him, 'a real man,'" the complaint said.
Martin did not appear in court on Friday.
Two of the people who testified for Peck -- a fellow member of the band she was in and a longtime family friend -- said they heard the comment and were horrified by it.
That's when things "fell apart" for Peck, Bluebaum said.
In fear of retaliation, Peck's stress worsened to the point that she was prescribed medications and was ordered by her probation officer to take them.
Peck now faces five years in prison for the probation violation and will have to complete sex offender programs there.
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