A former Davis County elementary school teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing students he was tutoring had two prison sentences stayed Tuesday in 2nd District Court.
Oliver D. Eames, 39, 272 S. 25 West, Farmington, was given two five-year-to-life prison sentences by Judge Rodney S. Page, who then stayed the prison terms and ordered Eames to spend a year in the county jail.The jail time will be reviewed in 90 days, the judge ordered, opening the possibility of work release and release time for therapy.
Eames, who resigned his teaching job at Farmington Elementary School in January, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain with the Davis County attorney's office to two counts of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child. The counts involve first-degree felonies but carry no minimum mandatory prison term.
Page also fined Eames the maximum $10,000 on each charge, but reduced the fine to $1,000 and ordered him to pay the cost of any counseling his victims may need.
The judge told Eames that his actions, stemming from incidents in which students were alleged to have been fondled, "have breached your responsibility to your community, to your peers in the teaching profession, to your students who have held you in high esteem over the years, to your family, and to yourself."
But, the judge said, the incidents included no aggravating circumstances, and he said he considers the former educator a good candidate for therapy and no threat to the community.