(10/29/09 – Initial BadBadTeacher.com Report)
Rudolph Anthony Garza, 29, a former teacher at Western Hills High School in Benbrook, Texas and at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, Texas has been convicted by a Tarrant County jury on a charge of improper relationship between an educator and a student.
Garza was convicted this week of having a sexual relationship last year with an 18-year-old female student.
Garza came to the attention of school officials when students began spreading rumors about the relationship. As a result, school officials investigated and called Benbrook Police.
At trial, witnesses testified that Garza began a relationship with the girl in the fall of 2008 and that the relationship culminated when they had sex on October 31, 2008 at a Fort Worth hotel.
During the trial, prosecutors called another girl, who testified that she had had a similar relationship with Garza when she was an 18-year-old senior at Hillcrest High School in Dallas. The girl, who is now 19 and in college, testified that she continued to have sex with Garza after graduation and until school officials contacted her in June with questions about the relationship.
10/29/09 – Case Update
The jury has sentenced Rudolph Anthony Garza to 10 years probation.
As part of that probation, District Judge Mollee Westfall ordered Garza to serve 180 days in the Tarrant County Jail.
The judge also ordered that Garza attend sex-offender treatment, have no job that brings him in contact with anyone under the age of 18 and to be evaluated for possible substance abuse.
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