Ex-teacher, coach gets 10 years on sex charge

May 27, 2009

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former West Virginia teacher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison following his guilty plea to a federal charge of sexual enticement of a minor.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia says 52-year-old Douglas E. Hunt also must surrender any teaching license he holds for any U.S. state and spend 10 years on probation after his release. Hunt pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced Tuesday in federal court.

Hunt, of Charles Town, W.Va., was an art teacher at Shepherdstown (W.Va.) Elementary School when he was arrested last December after being caught in an Internet sex sting conducted by police in Leesburg, Va.

Authorities allege Hunt agreed to pay $220 for what he thought would be sex with two girls, ages 12 and 13. He was arrested at a Leesburg hotel.

Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Susan K. Wall has said that Hunt taught full time for 11 years. Wall confirmed Tuesday night that Hunt's employment with the district was terminated by the Board of Education.

He also had coached the Jefferson High School varsity boys soccer team since 2004.

Hunt was arrested on Dec. 4, less than 24 hours after responding by e-mail to an advertisement on Craigslist.org that offered "fun times" with a 38-year-old woman and her two daughters, according to the affidavit filed by an FBI special agent.

The ad, titled "my2 gurls and me -- 99 (ctown/leesbrg/hf)," was posted by Leesburg Police and Loudoun County (Va.) Sheriff's department detectives, according to the affidavit.

In e-mails with detectives beginning Dec. 3 at 7:33 p.m., Hunt indicated that he was married, and had to be discreet about meeting the woman and her daughters, according to the affidavit.

Hunt used a phone at Shepherdstown Elementary School to call the woman less than two hours before driving to the parking lot of the Hampton Inn & Suites along Fort Evans Road in Leesburg to meet her, according to the affidavit.

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