An Ohio school administrator, who was married with children, received a three-year prison sentence on Tuesday for engaging in sexual activity with a teen student in her office.

Emily Nutley, aged 43, formerly served as a counselor for at-risk students at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati. She pled guilty to sexual battery in April and is now required to register as a Tier 3 sex offender every 90 days for life, as reported by WLWT’s Karin Johnson.

While Ohio law does not necessitate a prison sentence for this crime, the victim’s family urged the court to impose the maximum penalty. The state of Ohio recommended a five-year sentence, whereas the defense requested probation.

A sentencing memorandum obtained by the Cincinnati Enquirer said text messages showed Nutley initiated the sexual relationship with the male student in late 2023. Nutley had texted the student, who was 17 at the time, sent nude photos of herself to him and had at least four sexual encounters with him.

Nutley’s attorney, Joe Suhre, filed a separate sentencing memorandum, describing her as a “broken woman” who suffered from mental illness and alcohol abuse and was a survivor of sexual abuse.

Suhre said that when the sexual encounters with the student began, Nutley was depressed over the death of her brother and the dissolution of her marriage. He said a psychologist treating her found her behavior to be tied to “unresolved trauma.”

Prosecutor Elyse Deters speaks during the sentencing hearing for Emily Nutley at the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Albert Cesare/The Enquirer/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Prosecutors wrote that the student “will pay the price for the rest of his life” over Nutley’s actions.

Since her conviction in April, Nutley has been in a treatment program for those convicted of sex crimes, Suhre said.