Virginia Beach, Va. - A Virginia Beach mom is overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness and disappointment as the former school security assistant who slept with her 15-year-old son, once again, freely walked out of court.
"I thought we were going to get closure after all this time but we still have to relive this in a year," she says.
NewsChannel 3 chose to withhold the mother’s name. She went to the Virginia Beach courthouse Wednesday hoping Patience Perez would get jail time for what she admitted to doing.
Instead, the judge delayed sentencing for another year. And that’s after a Norfolk judge last week also gave her a year to prove she doesn't need to go to jail.
“It's like victims don't have any rights anymore,” the teen’s mother says.
Prosecutors laid out the stipulation of evidence in a detailed document for the judge.
It states the 24-year-old initiated the relationship with the teen while she was working at Renaissance Academy.
Eventually, she started driving him to and from school and to and from her house in Norfolk.
There, prosecutors say, the two smoked pot and had sex while Perez's husband was at work and her two young children were upstairs asleep. They also had sex once at the boy’s home in Virginia Beach.
Prosecutors even provided naked photos she texted the teen. But none of that was enough to bring the judge to a decision just yet.
Surrounded by family and her attorney, Perez walked out of court with her head down.
Still inside, the teen's mother wore sunglasses to hide her tears.
Although she didn't hide the pain she feels knowing this isn't over yet.
"If the roles were reversed and it was an adult male in pursuit of a young female, he would have gotten prison time. Society needs to change their views," she says.
To take her fight even further, she says she started a petition.
“I'm circulating a petition with regards to how they handle cases such as my son's, and I beg of you please sign my petition so the laws can change so every predator that even thinks about pursuing a child gets life in prison.”
