PITTSBURGH -- A former Highlands High School teacher's aide, who police said threw an out-of-control party for teenagers at a New Kensington hotel room, has struck a plea deal with Allegheny County prosecutors.
Judge Kevin Sasinoski approved the plea deal for Abbie Swogger on Tuesday morning at the county courthouse. Under the terms, Swogger will go to prison for the next three to six years and serve a total of 36 years of probation.
Swogger was charged in connection with a party police said she threw at the Clarion Hotel in February 2008. In separate cases, she was also accused of having sex with a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy in Natrona Heights, and stripping for teens and adult males in another home in Natrona Heights.
Slideshow: Photos From The Swogger CaseAs part of her plea agreement, Swogger made a statement in which she said she's very sorry for hurting her family and the family of the victim. She also said she was very sorry for "not being the role model I should be," WTAE Channel 4's Bob Mayo reported.
Those comments were much different from ones made last May,
when Swogger called the allegations "outrageous" and said, "They're lying to save their own butts from getting in trouble for the things that they've done," after a preliminary hearing in District Judge Carolyn Bengel's office.
According to the criminal complaint, police said they went to Swogger's hotel room after being told that two female runaways may be there, and when they approached the door, they heard noise and music and a male voice yelling, "Bout time baby, you sexy."
Officers found empty and half-full cans of beer throughout the room, along with baggies of suspected crack cocaine on a ledge above a door near a closet. Drug paraphernalia and a digital scale were in plain view, police said.
"You know, it's a dangerous situation," Deputy District Attorney Laura Ditka said Tuesday. "We always hear the news reporting about male teachers and male teacher aides that perpetrate on young girls. This was a female teacher's aide who met all of these children in school, who became friendly with them from school, who would meet them after school to furnish them with this alcohol and these drugs, and it escalated from there, and it was a very sordid affair, including the party with the striptease performance."
Swogger was charged with involuntary sexual deviate intercourse, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, furnishing liquor to minors, unlawful contact with minors and possession with intent to deliver.
She will serve her time at a women's correctional facility in Pennsylvania and has been ordered to have no contact with her victims. Swogger will also have to register as a sex offender on her release from prison.
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