Sarah Jones, former cheerleader for Cincinnati Bengals, pleads guilty to teen sex

October 9, 2012 (COVINGTON, Ky.) -- A former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader pleaded guilty Monday to having sex with her 17-year-old former student while she was a teacher at a northern Kentucky high school, a move that will allow her to avoid jail time.

In a tearful admission in Kenton County Circuit Court in Covington, Ky., 27-year-old Sarah Jones pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and custodial interference in place of more serious charges as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

"I began a romantic relationship while he was a student and I was in a position of authority," Jones said, her voice cracking as her family members wiped their own tears.


Jones said the relationship began in February 2011 when the boy was 17, saying 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 before he graduated at the age of 17 this year, according to Monday's plea agreement, signed by Jones.

In accepting the plea agreement, Judge Patricia Summe granted prosecutors' recommendation to sentence Jones to five years of diversion but no jail time, and she won't have to register as a sex offender. The diversion requires Jones to report to a probation officer and undergo drug tests.

Prosecutors said they were willing to make the deal because the teen, now 18, and his family were uncooperative with them and 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 the Jones (family). They were proactive for them."

Jones had taught at Dixie Heights High School before resigning last November. She was indicted in March, and her trial had been set to start Wednesday.

Part of the reason defense attorney Eric Deters said Jones was willing to plead guilty was because Summe had denied his request to keep the text messages that she sent to the teen out of the trial.

"They're embarrassing," Deters told reporters after the hearing. "They were steamy."

He also said that now that the teen is 18 years old, he and Jones "are free to be together" and pointed out that they left the courtroom together.

Deters declined to discuss details of their current relationship, saying that the pair would discuss it on the "Today" show and "Dateline" on Friday.

He said that Jones will not try out to be a Bengals cheerleader in the future, and that for now, she's working as a legal assistant in his office.

Jones has expressed interest in becoming a lawyer and is studying to take the Law School Admission Test, he said.

Before any accusations involving the student surfaced, Jones drew public attention when she sued a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based gossip website over a posting dated Dec. 7, 2009, that included her photo and was headlined "The Dirty Bengals Cheerleader." The posting claimed that Jones' ex-boyfriend cheated on her with more than 50 women, contracted chlamydia and gonorrhea, and likely gave it to her.

Another post on the site, Thedirty.com, accused Jones of having sex in the classroom and said, "Why are all high school teachers freaks in the sack?"

Jones resigned as a teacher at Dixie Heights and from the Bengals cheer squad in late 2011 after four years with both jobs. Deters said at the time that she had done nothing wrong and stepped down because a rumor that she had become involved with a student became too much.

The lawsuit, which accuses the website and its creator of defamation and invasion of privacy and seeks $11 million in damages, was on hold until the criminal case was resolved.

Deters now is asking for a January trial date in the matter.

Jones' mother, former school principal Cheryl Armstrong Jones, also pleaded guilty Monday, to a misdemeanor charge of attempted tampering with evidence. She admitted to the judge that she sent the teen a text message telling him to get rid of his phone and also avoided jail time.

Orioles tie ALDS with 3-2 victory over Yankees

A night after they beat up one of the best relievers in baseball, the Yankees went mostly silent at the plate against a rookie they had pounded the last time they saw him.
And as a result, after a 3-2 loss to the Orioles Monday nightbefore a thunderous crowd at Camden Yards, this best-of-five ALDS is tied at one game apiece.
The Orioles, who went 29-9 in one-run games during the regular season, won yet another one. The Yankees and Orioles now have split 20 games in 2012. Said O's manager Buck Showalter: "I'm just real proud the guys continue to compete and do it with a lot of let-it-fly mentality. There's no back-off in them at all."


Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday night at the Stadium, which also will be the site of Game 4 and, if necessary, Game 5. "We get to go home,'' Joe Girardi said. "We've played well at home and we'll have to continue to do that if we want to move on.''
Said Mark Teixeira, "We're not going to hang our heads. We definitely would have liked to have gotten the second win here. You want to win every game, but we're not going to feel too bad about splitting here. Definitely a missed opportunity, but if you take it so negatively, you're not going to bounce back. We're going to go in with a lot of confidence Wednesday."
Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who was charged with five runs in the ninth inning as the Yankees won Game 1, 7-2, pitched a perfect ninth in Game 2. He struck out Alex Rodriguez (1-for-9 with five strikeouts through two games) to end it.
Said Nick Swisher: "We knew we were in for a tough battle. These guys aren't going to just roll over. Tonight the place was rocking. We had some opportunities and we just couldn't get it done."
Andy Pettitte, making his first postseason start since Game 3 of the 2010 ALCS against Texas, allowed three runs and seven hits in seven innings. His hiccup inning was the third, when lefthanded-hitting Chris Davis' two-out, two-run single turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.
Pettitte didn't feel as though he pitched well enough to win, "No, because I didn't,'' he said. "The game came down to a mistake to Davis. That was a serious mistake by me that cost us the game."
Orioles lefthander Wei-Yin Chen, who allowed seven runs to the Yankees Sept. 7, gave up two runs (one earned) and eight hits in 61/3 innings. Said Girardi: "We had some [opportunities] and we weren't able to come through. [Chen] made some pitches when he had to.''
As they did in Game 1, the Yankees took a first-inning lead. Derek Jeter started the rally by lining Chen's 0-and-2 pitch into right-center for his 194th career postseason hit, extending his record. Ichiro Suzuki followed with a chopper that first baseman Mark Reynolds failed to barehand, with the error putting runners at first and second.
Rodriguez, 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 1, sent a low liner that was caught by second baseman Robert Andino with a dive to his right, and he easily doubled Jeter off second. But Robinson Cano, who finished the season on a 24-for-39 tear, then lashed a double into the rightfield corner.
Third-base coach Rob Thomson sent Ichiro and the relay throw to catcher Matt Wieters had him beat by plenty. But Ichiro made himself like a mosquito avoiding a swatter, somehow maneuvering his body away from Wieters' initial tag attempt, and went behind the plate. Now on the right side of it, he reached back, lifting his left hand to avoid another tag attempt as Wieters dived toward him and touching home with his right hand for a 1-0 lead.
Has Ichiro ever thought about running over a catcher? "I've never done it before,'' he said. "If you look at the size of me and the size of the catchers, I'd probably have to have some kind of weapon to make something happen at the plate."
Pettitte needed only 22 pitches in shutting out the Orioles in the first two innings. He then retired the first batters in the third before Andino dumped a broken-bat single into center. Nate McLouth singled and J.J. Hardy walked, loading the bases for Davis. His two-run single to right electrified the white-towel-waving crowd and gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead.
Rodriguez might have kept it from becoming a 3-1 lead. Adam Jones grounded a single past Jeter, who was slow moving to his right in pursuit. But although third-base coach DeMarlo Hale frantically was waving for Hardy to score, he held up -- perhaps deked by A-Rod, who looked as if he were about to receive a throw at the bag. Pettitte then got Wieters to pop up.
The Yankees threatened in the fourth but didn't score. With one out, Mark Teixeira singled, Russell Martin walked and Curtis Granderson singled to load the bases. But Eduardo Nuñez popped to short and Jeter grounded into a forceout at third to end the inning.
The Orioles made it 3-1 in the sixth when Wieters doubled to right-center and scored on Reynolds' ground single to right.
Nuñez led off the seventh with a bloop double, swiftly taking second when rightfielder Davis dived and caused the ball to carom away. Jeter then singled to left to make it 3-2.

Big Bird tries to fly above Romney fray

A day after the Twitterverse exploded in reaction to Mitt Romney's vow to fire Big Bird by cutting federal funding to PBS, Sesame Street declined to enter the political fray, turning down requests from TV talk shows for an appearance by the giant yellow avian.

But others voiced support on social media and elsewhere, reigniting a debate about taxpayer funding of public broadcasting.

One Twitter user quickly created a @FiredBigBird account and sent a manipulated photo of our feathered friend on a Depression-era bread line (caption: "This is now my life"), quickly amassing more than 10,000 followers before the account was suspended.

By midday Thursday, a Facebook posting directing visitors to a ValuePBS.org Web site was seen by 225,000 users and generated 500 comments. And reaction reached down to the show's pint-sized viewers: 8-year-old Cecelia Crawford of Alabama sent a letter to the Romney campaign, obtained by the Huffington Post, that urged it to protect "my favorite show on earth."

"People are certainly talking about it," says PBS spokeswoman Anne Bentley. "Moms, parents, teachers and educators have been vocal in their support today."

It's not the first time Republican candidates and congressmen have targeted federal appropriations, totaling $445 million this year, to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; it's a frequent target for budget-minded lawmakers.

But Romney's offhand remarks in a discussion about the deficit radiated as he promised that, if elected, he'd cut funding. "I like PBS ... I love Big Bird," he said, "but I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for."

Technically, the funding does not go directly to PBS or NPR; instead, it's sent to NPR outlets and PBS' 179 local stations around the country to help pay member fees in exchange for the right to air their programming.

"What it would really affect is our stations' ability to stay on the air," Bentley says. Such grants represent an average of 15% of stations' operating budgets, and up to 50% for some in rural areas. "They're really in jeopardy of going dark if they don't receive funding."

But PBS provides the home for Sesame Street, a much-praised preschool program that began airing in 1969 and is among its top-rated kids shows. It's produced and funded by Sesame Workshop, a non-profit organization, and the perception that taxpayer dollars are going to a group that sells untold numbers of Tickle Me Elmo dolls is "misleading," says executive VP Sherrie Westin. The show receives no direct federal funding.

"We raise the vast majority of our funding from licensing revenues, corporate sponsorships and philanthropic donations," Westin says. Even so, "PBS is our longtime distribution partner, and without them we couldn't reach all children in the country with educational, commercial-free programming."

Big Bird was not made available for comment. But in a Twitter message Thursday, BB claimed to be unaware of the fuss: "My bed time is usually 7:45, but I was really tired yesterday and fell asleep at 7! Did I miss anything last night?"

Dallas Cowboys foiled by interceptions in loss to Chicago Bears

Charles Tillman had the ball thrown right into his hands. All the Chicago Bears cornerback had to do was grab it and run 25 yards untouched down the sideline for a touchdown.

Lance Briggs had to go three times farther and sidestep a few Dallas Cowboys on his way to the end zone.

The interception returns by Tillman and Briggs, who are among the five 30-something starters on Chicago's defense, came in a 34-18 win over the Cowboys on Monday night when Tony Romo matched his career high with five picks.

"I think Lance's was better. He juked a couple of people. His was longer, so by far I think he had the play of the game," Tillman said. "Mine was simple and boring. His was exciting."

Briggs' interception came in a wild two-play exchange of turnovers midway through the third quarter, and put the Bears up 24-7.

The first fumble of the season for Chicago (3-1) came when Jay Cutler was sacked by DeMarcus Ware to set Dallas up at the Bears 27. It was the third forced fumble already for Ware, the Pro Bowl linebacker who turned 30 during training camp.

On the very next play, Romo was trying to escape pressure when he was hit from behind by Henry Melton. The ball popped forward into the air to Briggs.

"Just outstanding play by our defense," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "It seemed like everybody had a say in it. How about Lance Briggs? You guys didn't know he could run that fast."

Despite his fumble, Cutler was nearly flawless after halftime, completing 11 of 12 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns. He was 18 of 24 overall for 275 yards. A 34-yard TD pass to Devin Hester started the half and there was later a 31-yarder to Brandon Marshall, who had seven catches for 138 yards.

The Cowboys (2-2) are a .500 team again, alternating wins and losses this season. Since the start of the 1997 season, Dallas is 122-122 in regular-season games with one playoff victory.

"This has to be a wakeup call for us. I don't say that nonchalantly. It has to be," said Jason Witten, the Cowboys' 10th-year tight end. "You can't bounce back and forth like this and try to compete come December-time. You can't do it. We have been in that situation before. You cannot do it. And we know that, and we'll get better."

As CBSSports.com senior NFL columnist Clark Judge notes, "the Cowboys have exactly four touchdowns in their last three games, which isn't very good."

Making things worse for the Cowboys, they now head into their bye week. And their next game is Oct. 14 at Baltimore, starting a stretch of playing four of five on the road.

"These next two weeks are going to be very long," running back DeMarco Murray said. "They're going to seem like forever."

Dallas owner Jerry Jones, however, called it a "timely bye" and a chance to reassess things for his team that opened the season by winning at the New York Giants. The defending Super Bowl champions are the next team to visit Cowboys Stadium, on Oct. 28.

"I know it's the same makeup of the team. Same personnel," Jones said. "We've seen this team play well and we can play a lot better. ... We have a lot of work to do."


Chicago scored first on Robbie Gould's 43-yard field goal with just over 4 minutes left in the first half. Three plays later, Romo threw a ball right at Tillman when intended receiver Dez Bryant kept running down the field instead of cutting toward the sideline.

"We were just seeing how the corner played," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "Tony saw it one way. Dez saw it another way."

Romo finished 31 of 43 for 307 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown to Miles Austin just before halftime.

Chicago opened the second half with a 73-yard drive capped with the TD by Hester, who sprinted by rookie cornerback Morris Claiborne and had to make a lunging catch at the goal line — a play upheld after a replay review.

That was one of three plays reviewed by referee Walt Anderson and his crew. The regular refs were back to work a week after that disputed Monday night ending in which Seattle won at home against Green Bay.

Romo was picked off again when his short pass deflected off receiver Kevin Ogletree and was caught by Major Wright. The Bears ran only two plays before the teams traded turnovers on consecutive snaps with Briggs' first interception return for a score since 2005.

"We have a ton of athletes, a great mixture of old and young, a great core," Briggs said. "All of the talk coming into training camp about the offense. The defense, we've got a lot of pride. We want to be consistent. We want to get turnovers. We want to get after the passer. We want to shut down the run."

Murray had 131 yards rushing in the Cowboys' season-opening victory at the Giants. He has only 106 in the last three games, including 24 on 11 carries Monday night with an 11-yard run.

Oakland Athletics win A.L. West title

OAKLAND — With one last improbable victory, the A's captured the American League West title on Wednesday.
A roster full of rookies and no-names toppled the Texas Rangers 12-5, capping a mind-boggling comeback for a team that was 13 games out of first place on June 30 — and written off as a lost cause before the season began.
The A's took this one in their typically head-scratching style, roaring back from an early 5-1 deficit and taking the lead for good when an error Rangers All-Star center fielder Josh Hamilton allowed two runs to score, breaking a 5-5 tie.
By winning the division, rather than settling for a wild-card spot, the A's will play a best-of-5 series against an opponent to be determined by the Yankees-Red Sox game later Wednesday.
If the Yankees win, the A's would enter as the No. 2 seed in the A.L. and would travel to Detroit for games on Oct. 6 and 7 before returning to Oakland Oct. 9, 10 and 11.
If the Yankees lose, the A's would be the A.L.'s No. 1 seed and would open on the road against the wild-card winner Oct. 7 and 8. The games in Oakland would be Oct. 10, 11 and 12.
It's hard to imagine the Coliseum being any more rollicking than it was Wednesday. The stadium -- so desolate for much of the season — drew a sellout crowd of 36,067 (including 1,000 standing-room only tickets and a tarped-off upper deck).
Fans, some of them wearing names like "Rudi" and "Blue" on their jerseys


as a nod to the team's glory days, were on their feet almost from the first pitch.
They were never louder than in the fourth inning, as the A's erased a 5-1 deficit. The big hit came from Coco Crisp, whose two-run double to right field tied the score at 5-5.
The big break came from Hamilton, the Rangers' one-time MVP candidate.
Yoeneis Cespedes hit what looked like a routine fly ball but, as the center fielder jogged one step too far, the ball popped out of his glove. It hit the turf as Crisp and Stephen Drew raced home.
Only four previous teams had come back from a deficit of 13 or more games to win a pennant or division title:
The 1914 Boston Braves (trailed by 15 games through July 4).
The 1978 New York Yankees (14 games through July 18).
The 1951 New York Giants (13 games back through Aug. 10)
The 1995 Seattle Mariners (13 games back through Aug. 1).
The A's entered the day having not spent a single day in sole possession of first place in the A.L. West. Only two division or pennant winners in major league history spent just one day in sole possession of first: the 2006 Minnesota Twins and the 1951 Giants.
The A's finished (94-68) for their first winning record since 2006. This was the 16th time in Oakland history with 90 or more wins. Only the Yankees (23) and Braves (16) have as many as 16 90-win seasons since 1968.
Check back for more on this developing story.

Nicki Minaj/ Mariah Carey Feud Just 'Theatrics,' Nick Cannon Says 'I feel like it's taking away from the quality of what 'Idol' is all about,' Carey's husband tells 'Access Hollywood.'

"When you think about what the show is actually about and represents ... I feel like it's taking away from the quality of what 'Idol' is all about," he said. "This is about people accomplishing their dreams, experts guiding these young people to do what they've done.

"My wife is the strongest and classiest woman that I've ever met," Cannon continued, speaking to how Carey handled the situation. "If you watch the video, she just maintains her composure. ... I don't think she's moved by the theatrics and pageantry of it all. She signed up to do a job to help young people. ... This is like a sidebar. I hope that's not what this show becomes, about the catfights. The show is solely about a singing competition. That's why America loves these shows, they want to see people reach a certain goal or win ... and then to make it about something it's not, [it] kind of shows that the producers and the network are losing their foot a little bit."

Cannon said he thought his wife was not too upset about the situation and that she was focused on checking in on her family when she called him after the incident. With regard to her work on "Idol," Carey is genuinely interested in finding and fostering young talent, Cannon said.

"She called me and we were talking about the kids. ... At the end of the day, she's a mom, and that's my wife. ... We got diapers to change and kids to raise," he said. "I think that [avoiding on-set drama] was one of her main concerns. ... [She] signed up to be a mentor on a show that is about people accomplishing their dreams."