TAYLORSVILLE — The owner of a dance studio and former Utah Jazz dancer has admitted to sexual activity with a 17-year-old student.
Amber Telford, 33, pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful sexual activity with a minor, a third-degree felony. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss six identical charges that had been filed against her. Telford will be sentenced Aug. 18.
Telford, the owner of Colette's Dancing School in Taylorsville, was arrested and charged in January. Police said she had sex with the teenage boy from September to December 2014.
"She started by flirting with (the teen) and eventually began a sexual relationship with him that occurred at her home, her mother's home and also in a vehicle belonging to Amber," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
Telford would pick up the boy "in the middle of the night" and go to a church parking lot to engage in sex, the report states. Police say she "groomed" the boy by buying him clothes "and other personal items" and paid for a trip for him to go to Disneyland for a dance competition.
The activity was discovered on Nov. 28 after Telford's estranged husband hired a private detective who allegedly caught the two in her studio.
Court records show Telford filed for divorce from her husband in September, about the same time the illegal activity with the teen started. She has three children.
Colette's Dancing School is no longer in operation. The business is now run by different management under a new name.
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