OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Former Elkhorn South Band Director Michelle Bluford was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday afternoon. She was accused of grooming and having a sexual relationship with a student.
Judge Horacio Wheelock gave Bluford the maximum sentence, including the three years, plus 18 months of supervised release. She'll be eligible for parole after a year and a half.
Bluford pleaded no contest to a felony count of child abuse last month as part of a plea deal that included dropping two counts of third-degree sexual assault.
The focus was on one victim inside the courtroom. The young woman told the judge she was brainwashed and controlled for three years.
She says she was violated and served multiple roles for her music instructor, including lover and her child. She said Bluford was "obsessed with children."
She said she was isolated from her peers while instead often spending time with Bluford in secret on and off school grounds, where she said she was kissed and touched.
She said she was "violated" and could not name a part on her body that Bluford did not touch.
"She inserted herself into a tough time in my teenage years," the victim said.
The courtroom was packed with both opponents and supporters of Bluford.
The defense argued Bluford is embarrassed and ashamed about what happened, though did not specify what occurred.
Defense attorney Joseph Howard asked that Bluford be "allowed to continue her journey with her therapist." He called on a clinical psychologist, Kirk Newring, who said Bluford would not pose a risk to the public.
A former student of Bluford said she came all the way from New York for the sentencing.
The maximum sentence "is what we were hoping for today," Tara Nordbrock said. "It's an embarrassment they had to drop the sexual charges for it."
"It's really healing for me now to able to be here and hold the hand of the victim and be the adult for a kid that I needed and I didn't have," she said.
"This is not an isolated thing," she said. "There's people all over that wanted to be here today. Because of personal stories they have had."
Bluford will not end up on a sexual assault registry because the counts of sexual abuse were dropped.
County Attorney Don Kleine said it's not ideal that Bluford will not be on the registry, but he is satisfied with the result. He said she will be on a child abuse registry often used in industries that work with children and available to the public by request.
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