Georgia Supreme Court to hear appeal of former Oconee Co. teacher's aid who sent lewd photos to student

The Georgia Supreme Court next week will consider an appeal by a former Oconee County teacher's aid who was convicted two years ago of sending lewd photographs of himself to a juvenile student.

Jeremy Michael Wetzel, who was 24 at the time he sent the photos, was convicted of computer pornography and electronically furnishing obscene material to minors. A jury acquitted him of a child molestation charge. He received an eight-year sentence, with the first two years to be served in confinement.

The Georgia Court of Appeals previously upheld Wetzel's conviction, but later vacated its opinion and transferred the case to the state Supreme Court because Wetzel's attorney raised constitutional issues.

The state's highest court on Tuesday will hear arguments for and against Wetzel's appeal.

Wetzel is being represented by his father, attorney Michael Wetzel, who is appealing his son's conviction on several grounds, including a contention the statute under which his son was convicted was too vague.

The statute in question falls under the Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Act of 2007. Among other things, the statute provides it is illegal for someone to use email, the Internet, computers and other electronic devices to entice a child to commit acts defined as illegal under four specific other statutes, including sodomy, child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and public indecency. The attorney argues the indictment was invalid because it failed to specify for which specific offense his son was charged.

The Georgia Supreme Court has held "that a penal statute must be sufficiently explicit to inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part would render then liable to its penalties," Michael Wetzel argues. "If men of common intelligence must guess at the meaning of a statute, the statute violates the due process of law."

The Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Jeremy Wetzel, counters by arguing the statute in not unconstitutionally vague. Quoting from the statute, the DA's office argued it prohibits people from engaging in conduct that is "by its nature (is) an unlawful sexual offense against a child."

The upcoming Supreme Court case stems from incidents occurring four years ago. According to a summary of the appeal provided by the Supreme Court, jurors considered the following facts during a four-day trial in Oconee County Superior Court in May 2013:

In the fall of 2011, 24-year-old Jeremy Wetzel was working as a paraprofessional in the special needs classroom at Oconee County High School and was a member of the baseball coaching staff. The 15-year-old victim previously met Wetzel, when she was in the 8th grade and assisting the boy's baseball team. The victim also worked with the HERO Club, a student organization in which students worked with special education students, and Wetzel assisted the club.

Wetzel and the victim began having contact outside of school via Facebook, and in November 2011 they traded text messages, with the victim using her cellphone and sister's iPod Touch.

Wetzel's texts became increasingly sexual in nature. He attempted to send a photo of his penis, and when unable to do so with his cellphone he sent the photo by email from his own Hotmail account. A couple days later Wetzel sent more photos, asking the victim what she was going to send in return. The victim sent the teacher's aid topless photos of herself.

The communications continued for a few more days, ending when Wetzel informed the victim he wanted to resume a relationship with a former girlfriend. In December 2011, the victim showed the photos of Wetzel to a couple friends, who reported them to a teacher. After school administrators interviewed Wetzel and the girl, who showed them the emails and nude photos to the principal, Wetzel was fired. He was arrested the following day by the Oconee County Sheriff's Office. When deputies searched Wetzel's home, they identified the bathroom as the location as being the background in the lewd photos.

During the trial, victim testified she and Wetzel never had any inappropriate physical contact.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Wetzel was incarcerated from July 2013 to November 2014, when he was paroled from Valdosta State Prison.

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