The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction and 2-year prison sentence of a former Waterloo West teacher accused of having a student strip down and play various games. Larry Twigg was found guilty of 5 counts of lascivious acts with a child after offering a 17-year-old student money and better grades to play various games at his house.
The activities included strip video games and pouring chocolate syrup on the student in the shower. Twigg appealed saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence against him and that requiring the sentences to run consecutively was too harsh a punishment.
The Appeals Court found Twigg used an “overly constrained interpretation of the language” used in the jury instruction to justify his claim there was not sufficient evidence that the student had to take off his clothes. The ruling says the lower court was concerned that the activity had escalated and wanted to protect the community and send a message about the nature of the offenses, and the court properly did this by requiring consecutive sentences.
See the full ruling here: Twigg ruling PDF