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Records and social media postings reveal that the substitute teacher from Nebraska was discovered in a car with a teenage pupil, while nude is a mother who is married to a high-ranking federal government official who attended Harvard.
Erin Ward, 45, was accused of felony sexual assault by a school employee after she reportedly admitted to having sex with the 17-year-old kid in the back of the car while she was working at Burke High School.
According to social media posts made by the Gretna couple, Ward is also accused of cheating on her husband, a director at the US Department of Defense, with whom she has three children, by having a sexual relationship with the teenager.
According to his LinkedIn page, Doug Ward has worked for the US Strategic Command, one of the Defense Department's unified combatant commands, for almost 20 years. The command is based at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha.
Doug Ward, a former deputy branch chief and deputy director of the commander's action group began his career in 2005. With degrees from Bellevue University, Harvard Extension School, and the University of Illinois, he is currently completing his doctorate in defense and strategic studies at Missouri State University. Their relationship was first reported by the Daily Mail.
Erin Ward was arrested early Saturday when Douglas County sheriff’s deputies found her allegedly fooling around with the teenage boy in the car she shared with her husband.
Officers had responded to a call for a suspicious car parked on a dead-end street around 3 a.m.
When they peeked into the vehicle, they saw the naked substitute teacher with the partially clothed teen in the backseat, the sheriff’s office said.
The panicked teenager sped off in a car, crashed two blocks later, and then fled on foot. Erin Ward remained in the car, dressed, and allegedly confessed to sleeping with the boy.
Her ID from Omaha Public Schools was discovered by the police, and she admitted to substituting at many local schools, including the teen's.
The sheriff's office reported that the high school student was subsequently discovered hiding in a yard, wearing only his T-shirt and underpants.
The instructor avoided statutory rape charges because the youngster was older than Nebraska's consenting age of 16, but she was nevertheless charged with criminal sexual abuse by a school employee.
