Whether a Douglas elementary school teacher actually broke the law by sleeping with a 17-year-old high school student remains something of an open legal question.

But in sentencing 35-year-old Katie Marcus to probation last month, District Court Judge John Brooks sought to make one thing clear.

“Ms. Marcus, while there may be some fair debate about whether your conduct here was criminal, there can be no debate that it was reprehensible,” Brooks said. “The citizens of Converse County and Wyoming and the United States have a right to expect that our public school teachers are not seducing minors and are not engaging in sexual relationships with students, regardless of whether they happen to occupy a position of authority over that particular student.”

Marcus pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual molestation of a minor in exchange for a deferred prosecution agreement from the Converse County Attorney’s Office — meaning that as long as Marcus obeys the law and a series of court-ordered conditions over the next four or five years of probation, the case will be dismissed.

“I can understand how others in the education field and the community are angered by your conduct and may believe that your punishment should have been harsher,” Judge Brooks said. “And certainly the outcome today should not be viewed by you as any sort of technicality ... because in my view, to some significant extent you are being punished.”

Marcus approached the teen after a sporting event in November or December 2013, telling him “that he looked good and played good,” Converse County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Keri McNare recounted in court records. Marcus later invited the teen to her home via Snapchat, where she provided him five or six glasses of wine, followed by sex, the teen told McNare. They had sex again in a second encounter and Marcus told him not to tell anyone, McNare said of the teen’s account.

Law enforcement personnel didn’t find out until August 2015, when a photo the 17-year-old had taken of himself and a half-naked Marcus was shown to an investigator.

By that point, Marcus had moved to Cody and taken a job as a special education teacher at Sunset Elementary School. At 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 24 — a school day — Cody police and Converse County Sheriff’s Office personnel arrested Marcus at Sunset on two counts of third-degree molestation; one count was dismissed as part of the plea deal.

“I’m so incredibly sorry what I put your guys’ family through and your son,” Marcus told the teens’ family at her Oct. 27 sentencing. “I know it was wrong; I knew it was wrong.”

She also apologized for an April article in the Douglas Budget, in which she was quoted as denying she’d had sex with the student and referred to him as the “quote unquote victim.” Less than a month after those comments were published, she testified under oath that she actually did have sex with the teen.

Chief Deputy Converse County Attorney John Robinson, who prosecuted the case, said the plea deal had the agreement of both the teenager and his family. Marcus’ defense attorney, Bill Simpson of Cody, thanked the family for “their compassion, their understanding and their decency.”

The question of whether Marcus’ actions were actually a crime had hung over the case.

On almost the same day as Marcus’ arrest, Douglas teacher Ashlee Tillard had her teaching license suspended for having sexual relationships with two 18-year-old students in 2014 and 2015, according to documents obtained by the Douglas Budget. (Those acts similarly came to light because a photo of a half-naked Tillard with one of the teens circulated around the community.) Because those students were 18, however, Tillard broke no laws and she was not prosecuted.

In response, state Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, sponsored a bill in the Legisature’s 2016 session that would generally make it a crime for a school district employee to sleep with a student. The measure died in the house, but Boner has said he plans to propose it again in the 2017 session.

Wyoming law also allows sex between 17-year-olds and adults, but not in certain circumstances — such as when the adult holds a position of authority over the teen.

Robinson said he decided to prosecute the case despite believing that Marcus’ job at the elementary school “did not specifically, completely and thoroughly fit” the legal definition of being in a position of authority over the high schooler.

“... I decided that the victim in this matter deserved the opportunity for justice — even though there may have been issues with the legal wording of the statute,” Robinson said.

The case received a great deal of scrutiny in the Douglas community and elsewhere, prompting Judge Brooks to explain exactly why the deal made sense for both sides.

“She (Marcus) didn’t interact with the victim as a teacher and the sexual encounter did not happen at school,” Brooks noted, saying prosecutors “could or would” have had a problem proving Marcus held a position of authority.

“On the other hand,” Brooks continued, “the defendant certainly had to realize that her behavior was so unacceptable that a jury could find her guilty simply because she was a teacher, she knew the victim was a student and, at least conceptually, she had a position of authority.”

In approving the deal, Brooks also agreed with the prosecutor and psychiatrists who said Marcus appears to be at a low risk of re-offending.

“It is my professional opinion that the likelihood of anything like this occurring in the future approaches zero,” Dr. Matthew Hopkins, a Cody psychiatrist, wrote in a report that Brooks quoted in court.

Marcus said she’d been extremely depressed and alone and was abusing alcohol at the time of the crime. She said she’s since gotten married and has sought out counseling and medication.

“I’m not in the same place that I was three years ago,” Marcus told the judge.

While on probation, Marcus is prohibited from drinking alcohol, being in bars or hanging out with people who are drinking, among other conditions.

She must also pay $245 to the court and $2,583.69 in restitution.

“Your legacy in the community at this point is this case rather than what it could have been: a respected teacher who helped hundreds of needy students,” Brooks told Marcus. However, the judge added, “You are young enough to remake your reputation and your legacy.”

Marcus served roughly a day in jail for the sex crime, being able to post $50,000 in cash not long after her arrest.