Erica Suskie, initially accused of sexually assaulting a friend of her son, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor indecent exposure on Thursday in an arrangement that requires her to register as a sex offender but keeps her from being labeled a felon.
The boy's parents were consulted on the plea. Chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson reduced the original first-degree sexual assault charge to the misdemeanor count.
Indecent exposure carries at most a year in jail.
Suskie, who turned 44 last month, was sentenced to spend that time on probation and pay a $2,500 fine, plus continue unspecified counseling. She cannot appeal.
The arrangement, negotiated by Suskie's attorney, Erin Cassinelli, also bars both sides from talking about the case with the press.
Suskie's Feb. 2 arrest was notable in part because her husband is Paul Suskie, a former elected city attorney for North Little Rock, a former Democratic candidate for attorney general and a former chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission.
A member of the Army National Guard since 1997, Paul Suskie served in the Iraq war and is now executive vice president and general counsel at Southwest Power Pool. The pool oversees the bulk electric grid and wholesale power market in 14 states on behalf of utilities and transmission companies.
Paul Suskie, who turns 45 next Monday, held his wife's hand as they left the courtroom and walked by news cameras on Thursday after the hearing. The couple, who have two children, will mark their 21st wedding anniversary in two weeks.
She will also have to undergo a sex-offender assessment through the Arkansas Department of Correction, the results of which might never be made public if she receives a low risk assessment.
She will have to register as a sex offender for at least 15 years and keep law enforcement officers apprised of where she lives. Her offender status will restrict how close she can live to schools, churches and public parks, although she can't be forced to move from her current home, where the Suskies have lived for about 10 years.
She could be sent to prison for not reporting her residence to law enforcement as required.
The original assault charge is a Class A felony that carries a 30-year maximum sentence and involves an adult who is in a position of trust or authority over a child and has intimate sexual contact, including intercourse, with that child.
The misdemeanor exposure charge involves a defendant exposing sex organs to pleasure herself or someone else.
As a first offender, Erica Suskie can have the case expunged once she completes her sentence.
Formal charges were filed against her on March 1, less than a month after her arrest, but Thursday was her first court appearance before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who was assigned the case after three other judges, Herb Wright, Leon Johnson and Barry Sims, recused.
The first appearance is typically an arraignment to schedule trial.
Erica Suskie, who has served on a legislative task force studying autism and worked as a legal instructor for the attorney general's office, was a volunteer at Catholic High School when she was arrested but is not a licensed teacher. Her husband is an alumnus of the school.
According to an arrest affidavit released after her arrest, authorities learned that there was something going on between Suskie and the boy in late October. He told police that she had been having sex with him since April 2015, when he was 16.
Suskie, a friend of the boy's family, had contacted him through his mother in January or February of 2015 to tutor her son in algebra, but she then asked him to tutor her so she could help her son with his math.
The affidavit states that "numerous incidents" of sexual contact and intercourse occurred at the Suskie home on Timber Creek Circle and at the Sherwood home of Suskie's parents.
The boy's mother called Suskie one of her best friends in an interview with police that was described in the affidavit, stating that Suskie was someone she had trusted to watch over her children.
The boy's father stated that Suskie told him the boy lied about his relationship with her to impress his friends, but that his son later showed him text messages and a photograph of Suskie. The man said he had been out of town at the time of the relationship and that Suskie had helped his wife care for their children.
A teenage friend of the boy also told police that the boy also had told him about having sex with Suskie and showed him text messages and a photograph of her, the affidavit states.
Metro on 06/03/2016