An alleged soiled South Carolina kindergarten instructor accused of molesting a pupil grinned in court docket as she was launched on bail after dropping a bombshell on the choose.
Nicole Ballew Callaham, 33, has been charged with three counts of prison sexual conduct with a minor over an alleged affair with a teen boy starting when he was simply 14.
Callaham turned herself in to sheriff’s deputies in Anderson County, close to Greenville, final week.
At a Thursday bond listening to, her lawyer requested that the court docket launch her on bond after she revealed that she was pregnant, WDBJ7 reported.
Neither the protection nor the prosecution prompt who the daddy of the infant is perhaps; Callaham does have a (absolutely grown) fiancé, who was within the courtroom to help his alleged predator sweetheart, in accordance with the Every day Mail.
She appeared in court docket just about through a dwell feed that confirmed her sulking in a cinderblock cell.
It was a far cry from social media posts making her out to be a enjoyable and upbeat kindergarten instructor, celebrating birthdays along with her colleagues and even belting out an Abba music in a single video.
Detectives started investigating Callaham in Might and declare the sexual abuse began in 2021 with then-14-year-old Grant Strickland.
It lasted two years, authorities mentioned.
“The connection intensified as she reportedly signed the scholar out of college, transported him to practices and served as a supervisor for after-school actions,” the Anderson County Sheriffs Workplace mentioned final week.
“These repeated interactions led to a protracted sample of abuse, which was corroborated by search warrants and ongoing cooperation with the sufferer’s household.”
Strickland got here ahead after turning 18, “following time spent processing the expertise and trauma related to the abuse,” authorities mentioned.
Addressing the court docket on Tuesday, Stickland — who’s now 18 — mentioned he needs the case to empower different victims to return ahead.
“I’m right here to battle and I’m not going to again down. I feel extra consciousness must be dropped at issues like this. And simply because I’m a person doesn’t imply that it ought to be shunned away. As a result of I used to be a baby,” WBDJ7 reported him saying
A detective additionally learn a letter in court docket from Strickland’s mom, who alleged Callaham first met her sufferer when she was serving to direct a faculty play.
“She noticed our son’s innocence and that he was very simply manipulated,” the mom wrote.Callaham was launched after paying a $120,000 money bond, however the court docket barred her from going close to Strickland or plenty of places he is perhaps.
She had a fraught private life behind the scenes: She divorced her first husband final Might and have become roiled in a custody battle for his or her younger daughter.
Her ex filed for modified custody rights on the identical similar she turned herself in, in accordance with court docket information obtained by True Crime Mama.
