A Florida woman and former teacher reached an agreement with prosecutors this week to avoid what would have been substantial jail time for a series of felony counts related to her sexual relationship with a 14-year-old she once taught while he was in middle school.
The teenage boy was in high school at the time of the offenses.
Brittiny Lopez-Murray, 33, pleaded guilty to a total of six charges, including three counts of lewd and lascivious battery, one count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child between the age of 12 and 16, and two counts of electronic transmission harmful to minors, according to Miami-Dade court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
At the time of her arrest in October 2021, the defendant faced 25 different felony counts spread across two different criminal cases.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the first case against the former educator alleged nine counts total, including three counts of sexual battery, three counts of molestation of a child between the age of 12 and 16, and three additional counts — one of which involved a student and an authority figure.
The second case against Lopez-Murray alleged 16 counts total, including eight counts of using an electronic transmission to harm minors, six counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child, and two counts involving computers.
The defendant entered her pleas on Wednesday, according to a courtroom report by Miami-based NBC affiliate WTVJ.
In a plea deal reportedly blessed by the victim’s family, Lopez-Murray will avoid prison time completely if she successfully completes a two-year community control sentence plus 10 years of probation and a program for mentally disordered sex offenders.
She will also have to register as a sex offender.
Brittiny Lopez-Murray appears in two images. On the left, when she was honored as the “rookie teacher of the year” in 2017 and on the right when she was arrested in 2021. (Hialeah Middle School; Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitation Center)
In the Sunshine State, community control is a program intended to keep people from being put behind bars while still under intensive supervision by the state, “where you are confined to your home unless you are working, attending school, performing public service hours,” according to a fact sheet by the Florida Department of Corrections.
According to a police report, the victim’s sister grew suspicious of her brother’s behavior on the phone. The concerned sibling eventually gained access to her brother’s phone and saw “explicit text messages and photos” between the boy and Lopez-Murray. After that, the boy’s father was alerted and discovered evidence where, among other things, the woman and the child discussed “how much they enjoyed the sex with each other,” according to police. The boy had previously been Lopez-Murray’s drama student at Hialeah Middle School.
Lopez-Murray initiated the relationship with the minor when she sent him a text message expressing her feelings toward him in August 2021. Then, the two met up for coffee and went on to have multiple sexual encounters in the then-teacher’s vehicle.
In 2017, Hialeah Middle School honored Lopez-Murray as the “rookie teacher of the year.”
Miami-Dade County Public Schools terminated her employment after she was arrested and charged.
Law enforcement is keeping mum about the disposition of the case.
“We don’t do releases on plea deals and we don’t have a statement either,” a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office told Law&Crime in an email.
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