Teacher takes plea after gun discharges at school [View all]
Source: Associated Press
Teacher takes plea after gun discharges at school
| November 5, 2014 | Updated: November 5, 2014 2:14pm
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah schoolteacher whose gun accidentally went off in an elementary school bathroom agreed Wednesday to pay a fine and take a firearm-safety class as part of a plea deal.
Michelle Montgomery has already paid $200 to replace a toilet that exploded when her 9 mm handgun discharged in the faculty bathroom on Sept. 11. She pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of illegal discharge of a gun. It will be dismissed if she pays a $705 court fee and commits no new crimes over the next year.
Defense attorney Douglas Hoyt declined to comment during a court appearance Wednesday.
Police say the 39-year-old teacher's gun went off after she put it on top of a toilet-paper dispenser, though she initially told police it went off after it fell out of her holster, the Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/10w85km). She suffered minor injuries when fragments from the toilet or a bullet struck her in the leg, police said.
Montgomery, a sixth-grade teacher, resigned after the incident. She had been at Westbrook Elementary School for 14 years in Taylorsville, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Teacher-takes-plea-after-gun-discharges-at-school-5873313.php
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