Erin Ward, mugshot by Douglas County, Nebraska, Sheriff’s Office, and is a public record.
Married substitute teacher Erin Ward, 45, is caught in a car undressed with a teenage boy parked on a dead-end road
Erin Ward, 45, was arrested on Saturday morning after police found her in a car with a 17-year-old boy
The teenager drove the car about two blocks away, crashed, and then ran before cops located him
Ward was employed as a substitute teacher at Burke High School in Omaha
by Emma Richter | Sunday, April 14, 2024 | 10:11 AM EDT | Updated: 2:33 PM EDT
A married substitute teacher was arrested in Nebraska after she was caught undressed in the backseat of a car with a teenage boy, according to authorities.
Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies identified Erin Ward, 45, on Saturday after they were notified about a suspicious car parked on a dead-end road around 3am near 10200th block and North 189th Street.
LOL! Google Maps shows that that block isn’t some out of the way deserted road but a short, suburban residential street, the kind of place where a strange parked car would generate a call to the police.
As they approached a gray 2015 Honda Pilot, police said that they spotted Ward and a 17-year-old boy in the backseat as she was putting her clothes back on.
The boy then hopped into the driver’s seat and fled the scene before he crashed the vehicle about two blocks away, and ran away. Police found him more than an hour later dressed in boxers, socks and a T-shirt.
Ward, who remained at the scene, allegedly admitted she had sexual relations with the teenage boy, according to police.
According to police, an Omaha Public School employee ID was found inside the vehicle and Ward confirmed she was a substitute teacher at Burke High School in Omaha. She also told police that the 17-year-old was a student from the school.
‘The Honda Pilot was determined to be owned by Ward and her spouse,’ police said.
The story would be only barely interesting, except that London’s Daily Mail dug more deeply:
Married teacher caught naked in car with male student, 17, is the wife of Harvard-educated Department of Defense commander and they have a daughter the same age as her victim
William ‘Doug’ Ward, 53, is a high-ranking U.S. government official
He attained a master’s degree from the Harvard Extension School in 2021
His wife, Erin Ward, faces felony charges for sexually abusing a 17-year-old boy
By MacKenzie Tatananni | Monday, April 15, 2024 | 3:40 PM EDT | Updated: 5:00 PM EDT
The husband of the Nebraska teacher accused of having sex with one of her students has been revealed as a Harvard-educated deputy at the Department of Defense.
Erin Ward, 45, was charged with one count of felony sexual abuse by a school employee after she was found naked with the high school boy, 17, in her husband’s car.
Now, DailyMail.com can reveal her husband is a high-ranking US government employee who has worked with the Department of Defense for nearly two decades.
William Douglas ‘Doug’ Ward, 53, was appointed Deputy Director of the Commander’s Action Group and Senior Nuclear Deterrence Advisor at the United States Strategic Command in February.
His LinkedIn shows he worked with the Strategic Command since 2005 and initially served as a Deputy Branch Chief.
The Strategic Command, which is headquartered in Omaha, is a military unit that detects and deters attacks against the country and its allies.
In addition to his impressive job title, Doug graduated from the Harvard Extension School in 2021 with a master’s degree in political science and government.
There’s more at the original.
One would normally think that a “Deputy Director of the Commander’s Action Group and Senior Nuclear Deterrence Advisor at the United States Strategic Command” would have a reasonably high-level security clearance. If that’s the case, it has to be asked how the Department of Defense could retain him. If he wasn’t aware of his wife’s interest in teenaged boys, then he will have demonstrated a serious lack of perception of what was going on around him, and if he was aware, he’s just plain toast. Mrs Ward’s actions will very probably end Mr Ward’s career, even if he immediately divorces her.
As the age of consent in Nebraska is 16, Ward was not charged with statutory rape, but faces a Class IIA felony charge carrying up to 20 years in prison.
Twenty years would be an appropriate sentence, not only for Mrs Ward’s crime, but as a message to other public school teachers: do this crime, and you’ll do real time!
Here comes the real irony:
Doug liked several tweets denouncing child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in 2017, in between photos of his kids and retweets from his wife’s page.
Yeah, that’s going over well.
The couple have three teenaged children; what happens to them when mommy goes to jail and daddy hits the unemployment line? Mrs Ward’s (alleged) crime affects not just her victim and her, but her whole family.
How is that felony sexual abuse if they’re both of the age of consent? And since they’re both of consenting age why should she go to jail for 20 years? Did she hurt someone? no she banged another adult that’s all.
I really hate the tendency to over punish people for things that don’t require it. Especially financial crimes. But this too is one of those cases they did nothing illegal from what I can see.
She used her position of influence and authority as a teacher. Who knows? Perhaps the 17-year-old student was the one who seduced her, but it doesn’t matter: it’s like any corporation where a subordinate screws a supervisor: the supervisor is held responsible.
There are several states, including Kentucky, in which the legal age of consent is lower than 18, but in which teachers are held accountable when they f(ornicate) with students. Remember: with compulsory education laws, students are, in effect, a captive audience.