Jason Dean, a teacher accused of grooming and sexually assaulting students, pleaded no contest to five counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
The 37-year-old Livonia resident accused by a former 2010 student at Cedar Crest Academy in Springfield Township entered his pleas over Zoom the morning of April 15.
“That’s five counts total,” Oakland Circuit Court Judge Yasmine Poles said. “Do you understand that, Mr. Dean? There’s two counts as to one of your files and three counts as to the other. You’re taking responsibility for all of those.”
“Yes,” he replied.
Dean was to report to Oakland County Jail by the afternoon. He is scheduled for a May 20 sentencing.
As expected, crime and court stories in The Oakland Press had a strong draw on readers in 2020.
Like in prior years, the majority of our online stories generating the most interest covered homicides reported in Oakland County. Yet other crime and court-related reporting was also quite popular with readers. Hereâs a look back at some of those other attention-grabbers from the past year.
Tina Talbot, convicted of killing husband, released from prison
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After serving the minimum of a 20 months to 15 years sentence for fatally shooting her husband, Tina Talbot, 53, walked out of the Womenâs Huron Valley Correctional Facility on Nov. 17.
A plea deal is apparently off the table for a former teacher Jason William Dean, charged with having sexual relations with a 14-year-old student a decade ago.
Last month, court action indicated an agreement regarding sentencing had been reached that, according to Oakland County Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick, âthe officer-in-charge and the victim have no problem with.â
However, court records now show a trial is scheduled for next year.
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Deanâs attorney Nicole Blank Becker said earlier that her client was prepared to take responsibility for the allegations but requested a Cobbs agreement before doing so. A Cobbs agreement allows a person to know what the likely sentence will be, and if the judge sentences outside the guidelines the plea can be withdrawn.
Jason Dean, a teacher and soccer coach charged with sexually assaulting a former middle school student, was willing to take responsibility for whatever he did if it meant less than 10 years in prison.
“My client was willing to take responsibility,” his attorney Nicole Blank Becker said during a Thursday Zoom hearing. “I believe the number was somewhere around seven years, Judge. I have indicated numerous times to the prosecutor that my client does not want to have put the victim through a trial.”
But Becker said the prosecution wouldn’t budge from a minimum of 10.5 years in prison, and, for inexplicable reasons, the judge’s nine-year Cobb s agreement was unacceptable.