A jury trial scheduled for Tuesday was canceled after a former Franklin Community High School music teacher who had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student pleaded guilty.
Alex J. Brickens, 30, pleaded guilty last month to child seduction, a Level 5 felony. Johnson County Superior Court 3 Judge Lance Hamner accepted the plea, sentencing Brickens to about 3 1/2 years probation for the crime, which occurred during the 2017-18 school year, and was reported to police in fall 2018, when Brickens was arrested.
Under Indiana law, child seduction is an accusation that a child care worker, such as a teacher, who is in a position of trust over a child had a sexual relationship with a child who is 16 or 17 years old.
A jury trial was initially set for Feb. 22, 2019, but was postponed several times, according to online court records. A deal was reached in early July, and the plea was filed July 22, court records show. Brickens was sentenced July 23.
As conditions of Brickens’ probation, a protective order was issued for the victim, which Brickens may not live within a mile of, according to court documents. Brickens is also required to register as a sex offender, and may not live within 1,000 feet of a school. His computer access and use will be restricted, and he must pay a $500 sexual assault victim’s assistance fee, court documents said.
Brickens’ probation was transferred to Elkhart County, where he now lives, according to court records.
Franklin police started investigating the matter in October 2018. Students at the high school had reported a possible sexual relationship that had occurred in 2017 between Brickens and a student who was a senior at the time, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Police spoke with the reported victim, who confirmed that she and Brickens had sex approximately 10 times starting in September of 2017, the report said. According to the affidavit, she told police that the relationship started when she had car trouble at the school, and she asked Brickens for help. While she waited for a friend to come help her, she talked to Brickens, and that he asked her to text him when she made it home, the report said.
The two continued texting, and later that week, the student messaged Brickens that she wanted to come to his home, which was the first time they had sex, according to court documents.
The student said they had sex twice in 2017, and then again in the spring of 2018, court documents said.
Following the interview with the student, police spoke with Brickens at the Franklin Police Department. Brickens initially denied that he had sex with the student, then said that the two had a sexual relationship but it didn’t start until the student had graduated from high school, according to court documents.
As detectives questioned him more, Brickens told them that the student’s account of what had happened was correct, court documents said. He was arrested on a charge of child seduction and released the next day on $300 bond with $3,000 surety, according to jail records.
At Franklin, Brickens was a music teacher and assistant choir director. Prior to that, he taught, directed and coached at Center Grove Middle School Central from 2013 until May 2017. He continued as an assistant football coach at the school until October 2017, according to school district records. He also worked as a vendor, or independent contractor, assisting Greenwood schools with musicals or choir concerts occasionally for years leading up to his arrest, but was never employed by the district, school officials said.
