Curt Smith

Lansing State Journal

JACKSON – A former Leslie teacher charged with sexually assaulting a student also gave him a gun that is believed to have been used in a shooting in Jackson, according to court records.

Jamee Hiatt, 31, of Grass Lake, was arrested by Jackson police on Jan. 22, one day after resigning from her job as a third-grade teacher at Leslie’s Woodworth Elementary School. She was teaching at Leslie Middle School as recently as 2013, according to the district’s website.

She was charged days later with one count each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, in connection with what police say was a sexual relationship with a boy beginning in the summer of 2014 and continuing through the end of last year.

The boy, who no longer is enrolled in Leslie Public Schools, was 13 when the two started having sex, according to court records.

Hiatt, who told police a gun belonging to her had been stolen, was arraigned on a charge of filing a false felony report on Feb. 5 in Jackson County District Court in connection with that gun.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kathleen Hawkins told Judge Darryl Mazur on Feb. 9 during a bond hearing in Jackson County District Court that “we believe the defendant has, in the past, purchased a firearm, given it to our fourteen-year-old victim and that firearm was later discovered to be used in potentially a shooting at Loomis Park.”

The firearm was not described in court records, and it's not clear how police tied it to the Jackson shooting.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jerald Jarzynka couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. Jarzynka said recently that the false report charge is considered an ongoing investigation and declined to elaborate.

In a January hearing in which the sexual assault charges were authorized against Hiatt, Jackson police Detective Gary Schuette testified the alleged victim was a student of Hiatt’s in 2013 and 2014, when he was an 11-year-old sixth-grader. He added: “During that year she cultivated a relationship with him which ultimately led the two of them to continue their relationship shortly after school.”

Schuette told the judge that Hiatt admitted to having sex with the boy, according to court records.

The alleged victim told police that Hiatt had sex with him "so many times that he couldn't begin to tell how many times that there were," Schuette testified, but that the boy was able to recount five or six specific incidents. Those incidents, Schuette said, occurred at Hiatt's home in Grass Lake and on one occasion in a parking lot of a store in Jackson.

At one point in their relationship, Hiatt had power of attorney over the boy while his father was in jail on a probation violation, police said.

“Obviously, my client has a lot of things she regrets about everything that’s transpired,” Hiatt’s court-appointed attorney, Phillip Berkemeier, told Mazur on Feb. 9. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday. “She said she was forthcoming about what was involved with the gun and I wasn’t aware of it before.”

Hawkins said at the same hearing that she and the police were concerned that Hiatt would attempt to “reach out” to the youth or his family despite court orders that she not have contact with children under 16 or the victim.

Hiatt has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Berkemeier told Mazur during the bond hearing that Hiatt "believes she was played by this young man that she was involved with to a certain extent" and they'll learn more about it from the evaluation.

She faces up to life in prison if convicted on the first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge. Her bond is $50,000 on the sexual assault charges and $50,000 on the charge related to the gun. She remains in the Jackson County Jail.

Contact Curt Smith at (517) 377-1226 or csmith@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @CurtSmithLSJ.

What's next

Jamee Hiatt's next court hearing is set for May 6 in 12th District Court, Jackson.