PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WYMT) – Earlier this year, a Floyd County School District employee was indicted for rape and sodomy. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to amended charges for decades-old allegations.

John Martin, a district employee, was indicted by a grand jury in March on charges of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy after he was accused of sexually assaulting a former student between 1995 and 1997.

Shawna Absher, who was a 17-year-old student at Garth Vocational High School — now known as Floyd County Area Technology Center — said she endured years of abuse at the hands of Martin, sharing her statement victim at Tuesday’s sentencing.

“I didn’t have a normal childhood. I was raped and sodomized for two years, in class, at school, with the lights off,” Absher said. “Mr. Martin was my history teacher for two years. He changed my life forever. He changed my entire personality – everything I am.

She said Martin, over the years, asked for “special cuddles”, forced her to perform oral sex on him “almost every day”, “took her virginity” and filmed the act for use it as blackmail. She said he sodomized her for years and shared his desire to do the same with other students.

“Now I will live the rest of my life with the psychiatric problems of rape and sodomy caused by a person of power,” she said. “You stole my self-esteem and destroyed it. So here I am, years later, broken, trying to rebuild what you took from me and just to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I felt so small and dirty when you raped me and I’m still trying to clean up the trash you put on me.

After sharing her story, Judge Johnny Ray Harris asked Absher to verify that the plea agreement reached was the one she agreed to during mediation. However, she said she was told after mediation that she “had to accept” the amended charges or the case “would be thrown out.”

Harris requested clarification from Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Melissa Goodman. She said “the laws are different now”, and so the misdemeanor charge was brought to the table taking into account the antiquity of the events, because the Commonwealth would not be able to prove the element of forced restraint of the original charges or rape and sodomy. a testing framework.

Martin accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to sexual misconduct and was sentenced to 12 months probation and 24 months no contact with Absher or any minor.

“If this had happened today, you would have spent several years in a state penitentiary,” Harris said.

Absher and his family say they are unhappy with the “slap delivered” and wanted Martin to be placed on the sex offender list. However, Absher hopes this case will shine a light on the realities of sexual abuse in the school system.

“I hope God can forgive you, because I can’t,” Absher said.

On Thursday morning, the Floyd County School District said Martin was still an employee, telling WYMT a statement would likely be available soon.

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