Former Miss Kentucky Ramsey BethAnn Bearse is facing two years in prison after pleading guilty in a nude photo scandal involving a 15-year-old boy.
The 2014 pageant titleholder entered a guilty plea Tuesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court, Charleston, for one count of possession of material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct, WCHS 8 reported.
Bearse, who worked as a teacher at Andrew Jackson Middle School, was arrested in 2018 and charged with four counts of sending obscene material to a minor believed to be one of her students.
Speaking in court, Bearse said things started innocently but escalated between her and the unnamed teen through a series of chats via Snapchat.
The student had asked her "a lot of questions" and Bearse admitted she crossed a line by opening up to him about what she 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 said. "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."
Bearse claimed the nude photo was intended for her husband but she accidentally sent it to the boy instead.
"From there, he asked me for more, and I panicked," she continued. "I was afraid to not appease him, and when he asked for more, I sent him more photos of me."
A deputy received a report about the explicit images being sent to a minor and launched an investigation. It was the boy's mother who then informed the deputy she discovered the inappropriate photos of her son's teacher on his phone.
Bearse was suspended from Andrew Jackson Middle School amid the investigations and her employment was later terminated, a Kanawha County school system spokesperson said.
"I'm sorry that I made a mess of things," Bearse said in court. "I made a mistake."
Bearse will be sentenced 10 a.m. ET on Jan. 17.
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