By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
A teacher with St. John Nepomuk Catholic School turned herself into authorities after she was accused of sending sexually explicit text messages to a 14-year-old male student.
Samantha A. Brasses, 30, of Yukon, walked into the Canadian County Jail on Friday, June 7 on the same day she was charged in Canadian County District Court with unlawful communication with a minor by use of technology.
The boy’s parents contacted the school after they discovered the messages between Brasses and their 14-year-old son. The school principal contacted the Yukon police department to report the allegation on May 9, the police report states.
A forensic examination of the boy’s cell phone uncovered descriptive remarks about the former teacher’s intentions with the alleged victim, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The text conversation included the defendant writing “slide in beside me babe” and several other sexually explicit texts that suggested Brasses wanted to have sex with the boy, according to an arrest warrant affidavit prepared by Yukon police Capt. Terry Prigmore.
Brasses wrote several times that she loved the boy, Prigmore wrote in the affidavit.
The student began sending Brasses text messages in September 2018 at which time school officials cautioned Brasses about “student and teacher boundaries,” the report reads. The school did not believe the conversation had become sexual in nature at the time the student and Brasses were questioned.
Public investigative reports do not address the nine-month gap from the time school officials learned of the initial non-sexual texts and the time Brasses was arrested. Police did not report when Brasses and the boy resumed their texting and when it became sexual.
The boy had become “very private with his iPhone,” and hid it about two weeks before the police investigation began. An Instagram app on the student’s phone showed conversations believed to be sexual in nature, investigators wrote in their report.
Police do not believe there was any physical or sexual contact between Brasses and the boy.
Brasses posted bond and is no longer in custody. Her husband Ryan M. Brasses filed for divorce May 28, 2019 and is seeking primary custody of their 3-year-old child. Samantha Brasses has moved to Sulphur, Oklahoma, court records show.
A prepared statement from Father Rex Arnold of St. John’s shows the teacher has been fired.
“Thank you to the Yukon Police Department and the Canadian County District Attorney’s Office for their assistance and guidance, and for their thorough and professional response. Based on their investigation and the charges filed Friday in district court, we have ended the employment of Samantha Brasses, who had been suspended. I am especially grateful for the swift action of Principal Natalie Johnson and for the parents of our student who showed tremendous courage in making us aware of possible inappropriate contact through electronic media. We will continue to work with law enforcement in this case and encourage cooperation,” Arnold’s statement reads.
A call to Brasses’s attorney Amber Martin was not immediately returned for comment.
SIMILAR CASES
This is the third time a Yukon teacher has been arrested on sexual complaints in two years.
Hunter Day, a former Yukon High School science teacher, will be sentenced Friday after she pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and soliciting sexual contact or communication with a minor by use of technology. Day admitted having sex with a 15-year-old student at her house.
Jeffrey Hutchins Smith, 61, was a Yukon substitute teacher who was arrested in February 2019 by the El Reno police department for allegations of proposing lewd or indecent acts to a minor and unlawful communications by use of technology.
An El Reno investigator posed as a 14-year-old girl and Smith’s conversation with the decoy led to his arrest. His arraignment has been set for July 23 in Canadian County District Court.
