BRIDGEPORT – A former Connecticut high school teacher is facing up to three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to having sexual relations with a female student.
Although Glenn Mishuck, 49, had been accused of having sexual relations with the 17-year-old female student 17 times, he agreed to plead guilty to just four counts of second-degree sexual assault as his case was being prepared for trial.
Under the plea bargain, Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin told Mishuck he will be imposing a sentence of no less than 18 months and no more than three and a half years in prison when Mishuck is sentenced yesterday.
Mishuck, who is free on bond, and his lawyer, William Westcott, declined comment as they left the Main Street courtroom after the plea hearing.
Jury selection in the case had been going on when the judge proposed the plea bargain. It comes one day after another judge refused to dismiss the case on the claim by Wescott that his client’s relationship with the girl occurred in the summer when Mishuck was not the girl’s teacher.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Ann Lawlor told the judge the victim’s family were not happy with the plea bargain but, “They accept the court’s disposition of the case.”
Mishuck was a teacher for more than 20 years, the last 12 at Fairfield Ludlowe High School, where he taught the Advanced Placement American studies course.
Lawlor told the judge that the victim was a student in Mishuck’s AP class and that the two began a relationship in May 2013.
“They met through the school and Glenn Mishuck was her teacher,” the prosecutor said.
Police said the girl’s father became suspicious of his daughter supposedly leaving for the gym so early in the morning and grabbed her cellphone from her. Police said he began scrolling through her text messages as his daughter pleaded that she and “Mish” had a special friendship.
Lawlor said the father found numerous text messages of a sexual nature between his daughter and Mishuck.
On Oct. 6, 2013, Mishuck resigned his teaching position after police tried to question him. But police said his texts to the girl continued.
“Just know I have said nothing,” he texted the girl. “I have a pretty good idea what they know. Just know that I care about you and believe in you so much.”
If the case had gone to trial Lawlor previously said she intended to presents evidence of a sexual relationship Mishuck allegedly had with a female student while he was teaching in Stamford. Mishuck taught in that school system from 1993 to 2000. He was not charged in that alleged incident.
By DANIEL TEPFER/Connecticut Post
