Teacher Jennifer Caswell Charged With Rape After Being Found With Teen In Hotel: Cops

An Oklahoma teacher who was under investigation for an inappropriate relationship with a student faces a slew of charges -- including second-degree rape -- after police in Mississippi say they caught her in a hotel room with a 15-year-old student.

Jennifer Caswell, a 28-year-old former English teacher at Hollis Middle School in Hollis, Oklahoma, resigned from her position in April amid allegations that she was having an illicit affair with a student.

Prosecutors told the Oklahoman that initially, they didn't really have hard evidence in the case, only reports of suspicious behavior.

“Things that raised kind of an eyebrow. People seeing a teacher alone with a child may or may not be anything. It could just be innocent contact,” Harmon County Assistant District Attorney Eric Yarborough told the newspaper. “The child said nothing’s going on, she’s just a nice teacher.”

But then, on June 18, police in Olive Branch, Mississippi, say they caught Caswell with the boy at a Best Western. Authorities say a subsequent investigation revealed that the former teacher and the victim had sex multiple times in April and May of this year, including twice at school, according to the Lawton Constitution.

In a police interview, the minor allegedly said that Caswell had sex with him in a classroom at school three days before resigning from her job, and then again several times in her car and at the victim's home in the weeks following her resignation.

The Mississippi incident happened more than 650 miles away from the victim's home town while he was away visiting his mother. The victim told police that he hopped a fence in a church parking lot to meet Caswell, who appears to have traveled from Oklahoma to rendezvous with the boy.

Caswell now faces three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of enticing a child, and one count of forcible sodomy.

According to the Oklahoman, Caswell had been married prior to the investigation into the alleged sex abuse. She was formerly known as Jennifer Sexton, but since obtaining a divorce from her husband, has restored her maiden name of Caswell.