Prosecutor: Teacher-student marriage a 'sham' ahead of trial
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A prosecutor has blasted the marriage of a former teacher and his former student, calling it a "sham" designed to keep the woman from having to testify against him.
Citing court records filed Monday, Al.com (http://bit.ly/1qtAUuU ) reports that Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey is asking that the 18-year-old wife of Matthew Shane Wester be required to testify against her 38-year-old husband.
Casey says no marital privilege exists in cases where one spouse is the victim of the other.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wester, a former Cleveland High School math teacher, was indicted in January 2015 on one count of a school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19. Five months later, Wester married that student. The Associated Press generally doesn't name alleged victims of sexual crimes.