Former Nampa High teacher gets 17 years after plea deal in sex-crime case involving minor
Former Nampa High School Spanish teacher Keith Odell Peterson, 71, will serve at least seven years in prison after he was sentenced Thursday by 3rd District Judge Christopher S. Nye on one felony count of lewd conduct with a child younger than 16.
Odell pleaded guilty in October as part of a plea agreement that dropped a charge of sexual battery of a minor.
Nye sentenced Peterson to a total of 17 years, but he will be eligible for parole after seven. Nye also ordered Peterson to register as a sex offender, submit a DNA sample to the Idaho database, and have no contact with the victim, the victim’s family, or any male younger than 18. Peterson also must pay a $5,000 civil penalty and restitution for the victim’s counseling.
Peterson was arrested in April 2019 after a Nampa Police Department investigation found that he inappropriately touched an underage male on multiple occasions over a two-year period. The victim, who was not a student of Peterson’s, reported the abuse to a school resource officer, telling that officer that he had met Peterson through church and had a friendship with him before the inappropriate touching began.
Follow-up investigations found that Peterson had sexually abused the victim on at least two separate occasions at his Nampa residence, according to a Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office news release.
“This was an extremely upsetting and unsettling case, in which the defendant used his position of trust to groom and take advantage of an innocent young victim for his own sexual desires,” said Prosecutor Bryan Taylor in the release. “We have a responsibility to protect the children in our community, and Mr. Peterson violated that trust. He deserves to be in prison.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
