OGDEN — A former teacher charged with having sex with a ninth-grade student has been sentenced to a year in jail.
Justin James Davenport, 35, of Ogden, was ordered Thursday to serve one year in jail after pleading guilty to one count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. Credit was given for the single day Davenport spent in jail at the time of his April 2015 arrest.
Davenport, who at the time was a teacher at Highland Junior High in Ogden, was originally charged with two counts of rape, a first-degree felony; four counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; and forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. In a deal with prosecutors, all but the single second-degree felony charge were dismissed in April.
Following a year in jail, Davenport must complete 36 months probation and register as a sex offender.
Davenport had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl while he was a geography and history teacher at Highland Junior High starting in January of 2013, according to Ogden police. The ninth-grade girl was a student and teacher's aide for Davenport, charging documents state.
Davenport only taught one year in the Ogden School District before he was fired. He was suspended at the end of the 2013 school year after other teachers found him alone in a portable classroom with the girl on numerous occasions, charges state. The girl said she would often eat lunch alone with Davenport.
Ogden police were contacted in 2013 and investigated Davenport's relationship with the girl. When the special victims unit interviewed the girl at that time, she did not admit to having sexual contact with Davenport, according to police.
In February 2015, the girl's mother contacted police saying that her daughter, then 17, had admitted to the inappropriate contact with Davenport.
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