Bengals cheerleader and ex-teacher leaves court hand-in-hand with the student victim she admits having sex with when he was 17

Sarah Jones, 27, avoided a trial and jail time in Covington, Kentucky



Jones pleaded guilty to keep 'steamy' text messages out of court



Agreed to never again take a teaching job as part of plea deal



Former student cannot be named because he is victim of a sex crime

Jones will not try out for the Bengals cheerleading squad again and is focused on becoming a lawyer



A former Bengals cheerleader left court today hand-in-hand with the student she admitted to having a sexual relationship with after avoiding jail.



Sarah Jones, 27, pleaded guilty to having sex with the 17-year-old student at a Kentucky school where she was a teacher. She also admitted to sexual misconduct and custodial interference.

In a tearful admission, Jones told the court today: 'I began a romantic relationship while he was a student and I was in a position of authority.'

She left court in Covington with her former student but her lawyer would not comment on the nature of their current relationship.



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Freed: Former Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones walked free from court in Kentucky today, hand-in-hand with the student she was accused of having sex with while he was 17

Deals: Former teacher and cheerleader Sarah Jones, left, and her mother Cheryl Jones, right, avoided jail after accepting plea deals in Kentucky

Victim: Jones admitted to having sex with a student (pictured) at the high school where she taught English when he was 17

Jones said the relationship began in February 2011 when the boy was 17, saying that the two had sex, that she sent him sexually explicit text messages and lied about the relationship to police.

In accepting the plea agreement, Judge Patricia Summe granted prosecutors' recommendation to sentence Jones to five years of diversion but no jail time, and she won't have to register as a sex offender. The diversion requires Jones to report to a probation officer, and undergo drug tests.

The former student cannot be named or identified because he is the victim of a sex crime.

Prosecutors said they made the deal because the teenager, now 18, and his family were uncooperative with them and sided with his former teacher.

Part of the reason defense attorney Eric Deters said Jones was willing to plead guilty was because the judge had denied his request to keep the text messages that she sent to the teen out of the trial.

'They're embarrassing,' Deters told reporters after the hearing. 'They were steamy.'

'Rumours': Jones taught high school but quit last November for 'personal reasons'

He also said that now that the teenage is 18 years old, he and Jones 'are free to be together' and pointed out that they left the courtroom together.

Deters declined to discuss details of their current relationship, saying that they likely would do that themselves at some point in the future.

The attorney said that Jones will not try out to be a Bengals cheerleader in the future, and that for now, she's working as a legal assistant in his office.

Jones has expressed interest in becoming a lawyer and was studying to take the Law School Admission Test, he said.

The 27-year-old had taught at Dixie Heights High School before resigning last November. She was indicted in March. A trial in the case had been set to start on Wednesday.

She agreed to never again take a teaching or coaching job as part of the plea deal. The disgraced teacher can have the felony custodial interference charge wiped from her record.

Her mother, former school principal Cheryl Armstrong Jones, 55, also pleaded guilty on Monday to a misdemeanor charge of tampering with evidence.



She admitted to the judge that she sent the teenage boy a text message telling him to get rid of his phone.

Sarah Jones had been under house arrest after she was charged with sexual abuse for sleeping with a student at Dixie Heights High School where she taught English.

Avoiding jail: Jones, pictured an at earlier court date, agreed as part of the deal that she would never take a teaching or coaching job again

The five-year veteran of the NFL's Ben-Gals cheerleading team has said the rumors were started by the alleged victim's bitter ex-girlfriend.

However she admitted there were 9,000 pages of photos, Facebook messages and texts between her and the student.

The indictment, filed in March, states the alleged sexual relationship with the high school student took place between October 1 and December 31. She pleaded not guilty in April.



She also pleaded not guilty to unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual activities, a charge often reserved for people peddling child pornography over the internet.

In the interview earlier this year, Jones said that she has only had sex with one man, her ex-husband, N athan Wilburn . They married in July last year and separated just one month later. They are now divorced.

Jones also grabbed headlines in 2009 when photographs and postings uploaded on TheDirty.com branded her a 'slut' with 'two STDs'.

Mugshots: The 27-year-old teacher (left) and her mother, a school principal, accepted plea deals



When she emailed the site to plead they take photographs down, more posts appeared claiming she had had sex with Bengals players.

Appearing on ABC at the time, she said: 'To stand in front of 30 15-year-olds and tell them you don't have two STDs and that you are not a slut is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.'

