Teacher: Flight to Mexico was boy's idea

A former teacher accused of having sex with a 13-year-old student said it was the boy's idea to flee to Mexico and that he told her he would kill her if she left him.

"He was pressuring me and that's why we chose to leave," Kelsey Peterson said at a pretrial hearing Monday where U.S. Magistrate Judge F.A. Gossett denied bail, saying Peterson was a flight risk.

Peterson said the boy left bruises on her arms and chest, told her what to wear and threatened her life. She said he was in a gang and had her name tattooed across his chest, and that the boy's family knew about and encouraged their relationship.

The boy's lawyers disputed Peterson's allegations and accused her attorney of lying and using Mexican stereotypes to cloud facts of the case.

"This whole case has been pulling things out of thin air and putting them forth as true," said Stu Dornan, an attorney for the boy.

The 25-year-old former teacher and the eighth-grader were found Nov. 2 in Mexicali, Mexico. Peterson pleaded not guilty Nov. 29 to charges of crossing a border to have sex with a minor.

She said she panicked before they fled to Mexico, but didn't think authorities would come after her. "I was scared to death," said Peterson, who faces federal charges that could result in 10 years to life in prison.

The boy told The Associated Press after the pair were found that he and Peterson had sex. The AP previously named the boy as police searched for him but stopped using his name in reports after authorities charged Peterson with a sex crime.

Peterson, who has been fired from her job as a middle school teacher and basketball coach, said she left with the boy after school officials started investigating their relationship. She hoped rumors about them would blow over.

"I really thought it just might go away," Peterson said. "And I know that sounds crazy, but that's what I thought."

But the school called police, and authorities including the FBI started searching for the pair.

Peterson described stops in Colorado, Utah and California — including two trips to the beach and a day at Disneyland — before the pair crossed the border into Mexico.

Her lawyer, James Martin Davis, has said the boy is not 13 years old, has a 2-year-old child of his own and was Peterson's pursuer, not her victim. He said he would try to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors before a Jan. 22 hearing.

The boy, who was an illegal immigrant, is now living with distant relatives in Mexico. Dornan said the defense was looking for ways to bring him back to the United States to testify against Peterson.