Board denies parole request of ex-teacher

By The Associated Press

The state parole board denied a request Wednesday to reduce the prison sentence of a former Greenwood teacher convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student.

The board’s five members unanimously rejected the commutation request from Deanna Bobo, who is serving a 12-year sentence at the state’s McPherson Unit for her 2006 conviction. In the commutation request, Bobo acknowledged for the first time that she had sex with the student twice “after school hours and away from school grounds.”

Bobo, 41, denied the charges at trial and appealed her sentence to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which declined to review her case late last year. A judge allowed her to remain free while she conducted her appeals.

Deanna Bobo

Sebastian County Prosecutor Daniel Shue asked the parole board to reject Bobo’s claim, saying she denied the sex occurred at her trial. Shue also noted that three other male witnesses said they had sexual contact with her while they were underage students.

The board’s decision to declare Bobo’s commutation request “without merit” will head to Gov. Mike Beebe. Beebe can approve, reject or take no action on Bobo’s request.

Bobo’s commutation request, dated June 25, noted that she takes computerized accounting classes and tutors inmates three days a week. Bobo also notes that she and her husband entered a covenant marriage and attended marriage counseling and individual therapy. Couples can end a covenant marriage only after counseling and only on certain grounds — adultery, criminal activity, physical or sexual abuse or a two-year separation.

The request says Bobo has been married three times before, with the marriages ending over abuse or abandonment.

Bobo was a teacher at the former Raymond E. Wells Junior High School at the time of the offenses. The teen victim testified at trial that he had sex with Bobo twice in 2005 and that they had exchanged e-mail.

Prosecutors dropped a second sex case against Bobo involving incidents in 2000 and 2001. At the time, they said the alleged victim served in Iraq in the military and didn’t want to return for the trial.

The Arkansas Board of Education revoked Bobo’s teaching license in 2008.