A former Miss Kentucky pageant winner pleaded guilty in a nude photo scandal involving a 15-year-old student.
Ramsey BethAnn Bearse entered a guilty plea to one count of possession of material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct, according to a report published Tuesday by WCHS 8. She appeared in Kanawha County Circuit Court to enter her plea on Tuesday in Charleston, West Virginia.
She faces up to two years in prison and is set to be sentenced on Jan. 17.
Bearse was arrested in December of 2018, and charged with four counts of sending obscene material to a minor. Bearse was suspended from Andrew Jackson Middle School, where she taught, during the ongoing investigation.
Bearse talked about the nude photos in court Tuesday, WCHS 8 reported.
“I’m sorry that I made a mess of things,” told the judge. “I made a mistake.”
Bearse claimed the relationship started after she spent time catching up with her former students on the social media app Snapchat. (RELATED: Jennifer Lawrence Said She Felt Like She Got ‘Gang-Banged’ When Her Nude Photos Leaked)
She said she crossed a line after the student “asked a lot of questions and I crossed the line and shared too much information of what I was going through at the time.”
“Basically, that my husband was working all the time and was too distracted and overwhelmed with work to pay attention to me,” she recalled. “In addition, since I moved to West Virginia, I felt like I was completely alone. None of my family lives here, and I didn’t have any friends.”
The nude photos started after Bearse accidentally sent the 15-year-old student a nude picture meant for her husband.
“From there, he asked me for more, and I panicked,” she admitted. “I was afraid to not appease him, and when he asked for more, I send him more photos of me.”