Elementary School Teacher Charged w/ Prostitution
Maggie
Published Thursday, February 17, 2000, in the Herald-Leader
Teacher pleads not guilty to prostitution
She's `beside herself with grief,' husband says
By Tom Lasseter
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
With a courtroom of people whispering behind her, Susan Almgren's face remained
calm yesterday as her lawyer entered a not guilty plea.
Wearing a necklace with little hearts on it, the Lexington first-grade teacher
charged with prostitution stood quietly, hands balled up at her side and
looking straight ahead.
And when TV cameras cornered her outside the Fayette District courtroom,
Almgren still showed little expression. Jeff Darling, her attorney, answered
the questions one by one, stopping to talk with his client when she nudged him.
Then a reporter asked about the children: Did Almgren have anything to say to
the kids in her class at Cassidy Elementary?
The tears welled up and Almgren's body trembled. Her mouth opened a little, but
no words came.
``She's taking it real hard,'' Chris Snyder, her husband, said from their home
yesterday. ``Susan's beside herself with grief.''
Almgren was admitted to a hospital and placed on suicide watch Tuesday, Snyder
said. Her son, a Cassidy student, has been sent out of town to stay with
relatives.
A popular teacher for five years at one of Fayette County's more affluent
public schools, Almgren's arrest last week came as something of a shock to
those who knew her as a woman committed to helping children.
But police said the other half of her life surfaced at the Continental Inn
Friday evening, when Almgren allegedly told an undercover detective that for
$360 she would have sex with him and a 20-year-old stripper, Tabitha Ann Lea.
``I'm guilty too, because I didn't stop her from doing that stuff,'' Snyder
said. ``I could've, I knew, but I didn't.''
Investigators had contacted Almgren and Lea through an Internet bulletin board
where local escorts arrange to meet with customers.
The site has been abuzz for the last couple days with talk of ``Allie and
Whitney'' getting busted. Pictures of the two in various stages of undress were
still posted Almgren's face was airbrushed out in hers, but Lea's was clearly
visible.
How Almgren and Lea, an employee at Club Caribbean on Winchester Road, formed a
working relationship is not yet clear.
After pleading not guilty yesterday, Lea rushed out of the room and left the
building on a rear staircase.
On her arrest papers, Lea, who was charged with prostitution and possession of
marijuana, listed Almgren's home phone number as an emergency contact.
``I've let so many, so many people down,'' Almgren said in an interview earlier
this week. ``It's a really complicated thing that even I don't understand.''
Richard Day, Cassidy's principal, agreed the situation is not an easy one to
handle.
In a letter sent home to parents, Day said that beyond some generalities, the
school would leave it up to them to do the talking.
Prostitution, he said, is not a topic of conversation at most elementary
schools.
Maggie
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