Ex-Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones pleads guilty to sexual misconduct

Sarah Jones, a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader, pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old former student while she was a teacher at a northern Kentucky high school.

“I began a romantic relationship while he was a student and I was in a position of authority,” Jones, 27, said Monday, her voice cracking during a hearing in Kenton County Circuit Court in Covington, Ky.

Jones pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and custodial interference as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Jones said the relationship began in 2011 and that the two had sex, that she sent him sexually explicit text messages and lied about the relationship to police.

The teen had been in Jones’ freshman English class in 2008, and she was his peer tutor in 2010 and 2011.

Judge Patricia Summe granted prosecutors’ recommendation to sentence Jones to five years of probation but no jail time. Jones also won’t have to register as a sex offender, mainly because the teen, now 18, and his family were uncooperative in the investigation and were on Jones’ side.

“We feel that it is a just and it is a fair result,” prosecutor Sara Farmer said. “It’s certainly difficult when a victim and his family don’t cooperate by not providing information, but it makes our case a lot harder when they’re actually proactive for a defendant, and in this case, the family was more than supportive of Jones.”

Jones and her alleged victim left the courtroom together.

Jones was a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader from 2007 to 2011 before resigning when the allegations came to light.

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