SC: Teacher of The Year Charged With Criminal Sexual Conduct with Student

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. - A woman recently honored as "Teacher of the Year" was behind bars yesterday, charged with having a sexual relationship with a female student.

Kanesa Hopkins, 31, a math instructor at Westville Middle School who also teaches Sunday school at her church, was being held on $300,000 bail after being arrested Monday, officials said.

"The victim came forward about two weeks ago and gave us a statement, alleging this abuse occurred several years ago," said Detective Sgt. Jerry Jellico of the North Charleston police.

Hopkins had been both the girl's math teacher at Westville and her Sunday school teacher at church, Jellico said.

The alleged victim told cops she was in the seventh grade when she and Hopkins began exchanging letters and spending time together in August 2001.

The relationship became physical by January 2003, the student said.

Jellico said the alleged victim, who is now 18, gave investigators copies of "love letters" she and the teacher exchanged. "When we showed them to the teacher, she made a statement and was arrested," he said.

Hopkins was charged with two counts of committing a lewd act upon a child under 16 and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Just weeks before the arrest, Westville had named Hopkins its Teacher of the Year. Hopkins, who has taught at the school for eight years, was placed on administrative leave with pay.

NY: Man Lured Friend - Then Raped & Assaulted Her

A Queens man lured an acquaintance to his home with the promise of a barbecue and then sexually assaulted and beat her, prosecutors said yesterday.

Joseph Burrell, 44, ripped off the woman's clothes, attempted to rape her and broke a glass object on her in his family's garage in Jamaica on May 16, prosecutors said.

Early the next day, Burrell's brother discovered the suspect and the bloodied 42-year-old woman in the garage and called police, prosecutors said. The woman was hospitalized in critical condition.

Burrell was arraigned over the weekend on charges of predatory sexual act, criminal sexual act and attempted rape and assault and was held in lieu of $100,000 bail. His lawyer declined to comment yesterday.

MA: Craigslist Daycare Hooker

By Jessica Scarpati

Cops say a 19-year-old allegedly prostituted herself in a room within her mother’s at-home daycare business in Brookline.

“I didn’t know it had happened,” the mother, Angeli Depina, told the Brookline Tab through tears, adding she was “shocked.”