A newly released video reveals a Florida teacher leading police officers around her classroom, providing explicit details of sexual encounters she had with a 17-year-old student.
In late April, Heather Mashburn-Smith, 37, openly admitted to police her unlawful activities with the minor in her classroom at Port Charlotte High School. This confession is captured in bodycam footage recently obtained by Law & Crime.
“Can you just show us where in the room the sexual activity took place?” a deputy from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office queries the bespectacled teacher, as seen in the footage.
Appearing both anxious and composed, Mashburn-Smith guides the officers to the back of the classroom, indicating a set of desks.
“I feel like it was these desks,” she initially says, before reconsidering and pointing to another set, “I’m pretty sure it was these ones.”
“As far as the intercourse goes, this is the desk that we leaned back on,” she explains, describing how she was positioned on top of the student, facing him as he sat on a chair.
She elaborates on the positions they were in, detailing the directions they were facing during these encounters.
The unsettling relationship reportedly started with the two exchanging flirtatious messages via Snapchat after the teenager complimented her appearance, according to court records.
The student began visiting Mashburn-Smith’s classroom more frequently, leading to them kissing and engaging in sexual activity at least twice, as noted in the affidavit.
In the bodycam footage, Mashburn-Smith confesses that she would occasionally leave the side door ajar, allowing the student to enter after football practice. At other times, he would knock, and she would let him in.
“It’s not like I let him in and we went right to it or anything,” she recounts to the officers. “We would hug and talk … like I said it was not premeditated sex.”
Charlotte County Sheriff’s OfficeFootage from her April 29 arrest shows Mashburn-Smith being handcuffed and taken to the police station.
According to charging documents, Mashburn-Smith discussed her marital issues with the student and expressed a desire to leave her husband for him when he turned 18, the age of consent in Florida.
This alarmed the student, prompting him to cease communication and block his teacher on social media. However, she continued to message him on Snapchat, as detailed in the affidavit.
Mashburn-Smith admitted to the authorities that she “made a mistake,” acknowledging that she knew the student was only a teenager but felt that he made her feel desired, officers stated.
She faces charges of unlawful sexual activity with minors, which could result in a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Additionally, she has been suspended from her teaching position.
