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Former West High Teacher Convicted on Seven Felonies for Sexually Abusing Student

Prosecutors detailed a yearlong pattern beginning when the girl was 17, progressing from after-school encounters to visits to his home.

Overview

  • A 3rd District Court jury on Thursday found Sterrett Oney Neale guilty of three counts of object rape, two of forcible sodomy and two of forcible sexual abuse.
  • He was taken into custody after the verdict and remains held in Salt Lake County jail pending a Jan. 5 sentencing.
  • Prosecutors say the abuse began in March 2017 in his West High classroom after school and lasted for more than a year.
  • By August 2017, the student met him at St. Mark’s Hospital parking lot in Millcreek before trips to his home, where prosecutors say additional abuse occurred.
  • Police opened the case in March 2019, arrested him the next month, and the district placed the longtime teacher, employed since 1994, on unpaid leave.