A former Miss Kentucky beauty queen has been sentenced to two years in prison for exchanging nude photos of her with a teenage student when she was working as a teacher in a West Virginia school. Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, 29, pleaded guilty last December to one count of possessing material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct.
The incidents happened in 2018. However, Bearse had initially denied the charges and had said that the photos were intended for her husband but were accidentally exchanged with the student. Bearse's sentencing comes exactly six years after she won the Miss Kentucky beauty pageant.
Beauty Queen to Sex Offender
Bearse sent her nude photos to one of her students over Snapchat between August and October 2018 when she was working as a middle school teacher at Andrew Jackson Middle School in Cross Lanes in Cross Lanes, West Virginia. She was initially charged with four counts of sending obscene material between later was proved guilty for one.
Besides serving two years in prison, Bearse has also been sentenced to 10 years of supervised release. The assistant prosecutor in the Kanawha County Circuit Court said on Friday that after serving her term in prison, Bearse will have to register herself as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
Bearse pleaded guilty to one count of possessing material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct in December 2019. "Since I am the adult, and he was just a teenager, it is my fault, and I accept full blame for the situation. That's how I'm guilty of this crime. I messed up big time," she had said at the time of her guilty plea.
Bad Example
Bearse was crowned Miss Kentucky on July 12, 2014, following which she took the job of an assistant teacher. She went by her birth name Ramsey Carpenter at that time. According to Kanawha County Sheriff's Office, Bearse had sent a series of topless photos to the student. A parent of the student later reported finding the obscene images on the teen's phone.
Bearse had said that the photos were meant for her husband but were mistakenly sent to the minor as his number was saved just next to her husband's mobile number. However, the minor kept asking for additional photos which she kept sending. In fact, the student also sent one of his nude photos but Bearse said that she doesn't have that anymore. "From there he asked me for more and I panicked," she had said. "When he asked for more I sent him more photos of me which lead him sending a photo of his privates."
She was suspended from teaching in the school following the allegations. Bearse is a gifted violin player and had impressed the judges with her skills during the Miss Kentucky contest. She had also earned a place in the top 12 of the national Miss America pageant in 2015. Bearse has to report to prison by Monday morning.
