Teacher Jailed for Sex With Student

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," March 15, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Twenty-five-year-old Washington teacher Rebekah Todd entered court expecting to be sentenced to 30 days of home detention, the plea bargain worked out with prosecutors for having sex with a then 17-year-old student.

But unlike similar cases, the judge ignored the plea bargain and sentenced Todd to six months in prison.

Joining us now, Florida prosecutor Pam Bondi, defense attorney Pam Bremner. Guys, welcome to the program.

HANNITY: All right. Now this is a little bit unique because it's rare that a judge is going to override a plea bargain that's been made. And I assume, Ann Bremner, you would be against this, considering, you know, you're friends with Mary Kay Letourneau.

But — and I know the age of consent in Washington is 16. This did was 17. But she's still in a position of authority having sex with a student.

ANN BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You have the combined wisdom, though, at two opposite ends in this case. The prosecution and the defense, what they agreed to what we call up here a negotiated plea, not a plea bargain, and it was rejected by the judge.

In the Mark Kay Letourneau case, I had defended the civil case where her then victim sued and, of course, now they're married. There's some considerations here that I think we have to look at. And I don't know that I agree with the sentence.

HANNITY: Look, I don't mean to make light of this phenomenon, Pam Bondi. The only attention I ever got from a teacher was a slap on the back of my head with a ruler, but...

PAM BONDI, PROSECUTOR: And you deserved it probably.

HANNITY: That's cruel. Yes, I probably did.

BONDI: All right, so no.

HANNITY: No, it's all true.

But you know, what's frustrating to me is that people don't seem to understand the issue of this being a person in authority that's taking advantage of a student. If it's, again, another attractive girl, although this one is not blonde. What a shock. You know, there's a two-tiered justice system for good-looking female teachers.

BONDI: And you know, Sean, we've always talked about you have to look at each of these cases individually. But in this case, I think the judge did this because the facts were very egregious when we learned that she last June was accused to giving alcohol to all her students from an off campus function.

HANNITY: Yes.

BONDI: Then she showed her female class a striptease video as a reward for doing well in school. I mean, that's outrageous. That's not why we send our kids to school.

HANNITY: And Ann Bremner, this is the point here. If it's a male teacher and it's a young girl, everybody would — there would be widespread condemnation and outrage.

And I'm trying to understand this cultural — and I'll read the e- mail. This cultural divide. If it's a boy, it's a chip off the old block. If it's a girl, how dare you touch my daughter?

BREMNER: "Summer of '42", "The Graduate". But here's the thing. She's pled guilty and was treated the same as a man in terms of had she gone to trial or pled guilty. But it's interesting when you look at the fact that the studies are showing boys are not as damaged and the fact that women are not predatory.

At least the studies show that. At this point, you're looking at protecting the public, deterrence, et cetera. And you've got a different reason.

COLMES: There is an outrage here, Pam. As far as I can tell, people are outraged about this woman. Here's a woman who, in addition to what you cited — well, you did cite the fact that she, what, did a striptease for females, or showed a film of her strip teasing for female students.

But is it OK to give her a sentence for things that she did previously for which she was never convicted?

BONDI: Well, that would not have been taken into consideration by a jury, had it gone to trial, Alan. And I think that's what — you know, the prosecutors knew that.

And what Sean said, you know, he's going to get all these e-mails saying, "Hey, nothing is wrong with this." Well, those are the people that sit on our juries, unfortunately.

The thing I do disagree with Ann on, brilliant defense attorney that I disagree that boys aren't as affected — as affected as much as girls. Because we've dealt with them. And young men, especially when they're younger, are much more affected.

COLMES: Doesn't that depend upon the person in the case and the age and the circumstances? Because in this case, you've got a 17 year-old, as was pointed out a few moments ago, above the age of consent. Should that figure into the sentencing?

BONDI: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. That's certainly a mitigating factor in this case.

COLMES: And Ann Bremner, what about that? Here's a woman who gets far more time than everybody thought she would get. They thought she'd get maybe 30 days and home detention. And the guy was 17 years old. Is this an appropriate sentence?

BREMNER: Well, I don't think that it is. In fact, in the Mary Kay Letourneau case, we actually had the studies that said that boys were not as damaged. And that's really because of what Sean talked about, with the cultural issues. And they are issues.

And I'm a big Pam Bondi fan. And I think, you know, that these are things she sees in her prosecution of boys being damaged, but the studies would show otherwise. Why do we hold this woman up as an example differently than the other women that have been sentenced? I don't know.

And this is in our neck of the woods out here. In Seattle, we had Mary Kay Letourneau. And of course, this case was out here, too.

COLMES: Pam, why do this keep happening, these kinds of cases?

BONDI: You know, I wish we knew the answers.

BREMNER: I'm sorry.

BONDI: I'm sorry. I wish we knew the answer. I mean, this is crazy, isn't it? It keeps happening over and over and over. And you know, Alan, what do you do? You send your kids to school, and you think you're going to be safe. And I mean, this story was older. But it's happening in our middle schools now.

HANNITY: All right, guys. Thanks for being with us. And it is unbelievable it is happening that much.

BREMNER: Thank you.

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