Ex-high school teacher facing 20 more counts in student sex case

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Published Wednesday, June 8, 2016 | 10:02 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, June 8, 2016 | 11:21 a.m.

Twenty more felony charges were filed today against a former Las Vegas high school science teacher and girls' swimming coach accused of forcing a teenage student into a sexual relationship.

Jonathan Avery Scheaffer, 23, said nothing in court while Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joseph Sciscento set bail at $100,000 and said Scheaffer will have to serve house arrest and can't have contact with minors or his alleged victim pending a preliminary hearing Aug. 31.

Outside court, defense attorney Robert Draskovich said he expected Scheaffer will be able to post bail.

Scheaffer was arrested last Wednesday, and has resigned from the job he had for two years at Desert Pines High School.

Draskovich and co-counsel Louis Schneider said Scheaffer will accept responsibility for having a consensual sexual relationship with the girl, who Draskovich said was less than five years younger than Scheaffer during the relationship from November 2014 to June 2015.

Schneider has said Scheaffer obtained permission from the girl's mother at the time.

The lawyers accused prosecutor Michelle Jobe of overcharging their client with 31 counts, including newly filed kidnapping and sexual assault charges that could get him up to life in prison.

Scheaffer also faces multiple sexual conduct between a school employee and a pupil, lewdness, child abuse, and use of a minor as a subject of sexual portrayal charges.

"We're in no way condoning unlawful sexual contact between a student and a teaching member of the faculty. That's wrong," Draskovich said in court. "However, to create charges that carry life sentences that don't fit the facts ... is abusive."

Jobe said the girl told investigators that she was forced — shaking, crying and screaming — into sex acts.