Western NY Teacher Retried, Convicted Again Of Raping Special Needs Student

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A former western New York teacher's aide has been convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy after an appeals court threw out a previous conviction and ordered a new trial.

A Monroe County jury convicted Jennifer Kennard of Irondequoit on Thursday of third-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child. The 49-year-old woman had worked as a teacher's aide at the East Irondequoit Middle School outside Rochester when she sexually assaulted a former student — who has special needs — at a suburban hotel in February 2013.

An appeals court overturned Kennard's 2014 conviction, saying the judge in her first trial wrongly allowed her statements to police to be used in court. She had asked to speak to an attorney.

Kennard faces up to four years in prison at her August sentencing.