FARMINGTON — Former Davis High School teacher Brianne Altice appeared in court on new charges of rape and forcible sodomy, after a second student came forward to accuse her of sexual conduct.
It was a brief hearing as 2nd District Court Judge John Morris canceled her original jury trial and set a September 19 preliminary hearing, where he will decide if there is enough evidence to make her stand trial on the new charges.
Altice is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old boy who was in her class last year. In a new complaint, prosecutors accuse the former English teacher of having sex with a 17-year-old boy at roughly the same time.
“They’re new (charges) in the sense that they were filed recently,” Altice’s attorney, Ed Brass, told FOX 13. “These allegations go back to October of last year. There was some delay in filing them and that’s something we’ll talk about during the preliminary hearing.”
Altice left the courtroom declining to comment to FOX 13. She had previously pleaded not guilty to rape charges filed in the original case.
In court papers, the defense had suggested they would claim Altice’s accuser was an aggressor in any alleged misconduct. In a recent court filing, Davis County prosecutors revealed they brought forward the 17-year-old to challenge Altice’s claims she was not in a position of special trust.
“The Defendant planned the sexual contact she had with both [alleged victims] at school when [they] were in her classroom,” prosecutor Cristina Ortega wrote. “The Defendant was the active participant in the planning of the meetings outside of school that resulted in sexual activity.”
Brass said their original defense has not changed.
“We’ll need to see some discovery with respect to these new allegations, which we have yet to be provided with,” he said.
Brass filed his own motion in the case to suppress any statements Altice allegedly made to Kaysville police. In the filing, he stated that as many as 10 officers showed up to her house last October, demanded to be let inside and questioned her for four hours in violation of her Miranda rights.
Read the defense filing here:
“Ms. Altice asked several times to speak to an attorney and was denied access to one,” he wrote. “Questioning did not stop when she requested an attorney.”
He said police told Altice that unless she cooperated, they wouldn’t leave her house.
“Ms. Altice’s home was full of police officers at this point, more than the original 8-10 that were on her porch. All of the officers were male. Some of them were wandering through the house taking photographs without permission. Ms. Altice has no experience with police officers and was terrified by the sheer number of officers and the fact there were no female officers.”
A judge has not yet scheduled a hearing on Altice’s motion to suppress her statements.
