A teacher from Bethel, CT was sentenced Friday in New York to 25 years in prison for enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Sandy Carazas-Pinez, 36, was a high school teacher at a K-12 grade school in Yonkers, New York.
“Sandy Carazas-Pinez betrayed her role and, through explicit texts and other means, coerced a 16-year-old into a sexual relationship,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a release on Monday. “Actions of this type by anyone, particularly a teacher or other person of trust, will not be tolerated.”
According to the court documents and statement made during court proceedings, from around November 2022 through February 2023, Ms Carazas-Pinez abused her position as a teacher by inducing and attempting to induce a student into a sexual relationship. The minor victim was 16 years old at the time of the abuse.
She singled out the minor victim for personal attention in school and induced the minor victim to engage in sexual activity with her by leading the victim to believe that they were in a romantic relationship.
Carazas-Pinez used her personal cellphone to call, text, and video call the minor victim to arrange sexual encounters and to repeatedly induce the victim to engage in live-streamed sexually explicit conduct while on video calls. In text messages with the minor victim, Carazas-Pinez referred to her sexual encounters with minor victim and the live depictions of sexually explicit conduct she induced minor victim to create as “gifts.”
Carazas-Pinez also used her personal cellphone to send minor victim sexually suggestive photographs of herself along with sexually explicit text messages. After sending the photographs and messages, Carazas-Pinez instructed the minor victim to delete them and inquired repeatedly as to whether the minor victim had done so.
To facilitate their sexual encounters outside the premises of school, Carazas-Pinez directed the minor victim in text messages to obtain day passes from school to be permitted to leave campus. Carazas-Pinez then met minor victim at a location near school’s campus and drove the minor victim to another location. On multiple occasions, while parked in Carazas-Pinez’s car at various locations, including in or around the Bronx, Yonkers, and Staten Island, New York, Carazas-Pinez engaged in sexual intercourse and other sexual acts, and attempted to do so, with the minor victim.
In addition to the prison term, Carazas-Pinez, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.
Mr. Clayton praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department for their outstanding work in this matter.
The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit in the Criminal Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi S. Steiner is in charge of the prosecution.