MIAMI – Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial of a former Miami-Dade high school teacher who is accused of having sex with a 17-year-old student.
Jason Meyers, 47, a former English teacher at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, who taught creative writing, was arrested nearly seven years ago.
His accuser, now 24, took the stand after attorneys made their opening statements.
“He suggested sex as a way to elevate my writing,” the woman, whom Local 10 News is not identifying, said.
She testified a crush to sex with Meyers and detailed allegations of sexually explicit poetry, locked doors, oral sex and more.
“I was looking around the room as it was happening,” she said, after telling jurors Meyers “moved (her) shorts over with (her) fingers” as the two kissed.
Meyers’ attorneys countered that the accuser’s detailed, tearful testimony was baseless.
“(There were) zero text messages between the two, zero emails, phone calls between the two,” attorney Brad Horenstein said.
Before the trial Wednesday, a group of four protesters chanted “no teacher sex!” outside the Miami-Dade courthouse.
On Tuesday, as jury selection continued, attorneys for Meyers cited a Local 10 News report from the previous day in having a prospective juror dismissed from the pool before attorneys were able to whittle it down by the early evening hours.
On Monday, Local 10 News reported that Juror No. 5 told the judge that her daughter and her friends were students at Palmetto and were “not surprised” over the allegations.
“After the fact, I know different girls were not surprised to hear it,” she said Monday. “It was no surprise that this was the person.”
Defense attorneys revisited those comments, using the Local 10 report for documentation, leading to the prospective juror being removed from the pool.
In addition to the 17-year-old victim, Meyers is also accused of similar incidents involving other students dating back to 2004, one of who sued the Miami-Dade School Board and was awarded $6 million.
The federal jury in that case concluded that the school board had been warned about Meyers’ behavior but did nothing to stop it.
Meyers claimed that one of the students who made allegations against him spun a story for revenge after he had rescinded her college recommendation and she lost a scholarship.
“The student was failing the class, skipping school and was caught cheating,” he said during a previous court hearing.
Meyers was fired the Miami-Dade school district after his arrest in February 2016.