A Cape Coral, Florida, dance instructor was convicted last week on three second-degree felony counts involving the molestation of one of her students. Nichol Marie Phelps, now 30, pursued an increasingly sexual relationship before she molested the girl in March of 2012.
According to the police report, the girl was thirteen when she first met Phelps at the Universal Dance Academy in Port Charlotte, where the teacher “took a liking to her and always singled her out.” The girl complained that Phelps discussed performing sex acts on her and contacted her 550 times from January to June of 2012. Phelps had also told the young girl she would leave her husband to be with her.
The night before the molestation, the young girl had discovered the then-28-year-old dance instructor crying in the bathroom and approached her to see if she could console her. Phelps responded by looking at her and “asked why she was so hot and why did she have such strong feelings for her.” According to the investigative report, Phelps then pinned the teen to a wall and kissed her.
The ensuing day while attending a dance convention, the young girl helped Phelps load luggage into her car inside the Hyatt garage at Orlando International Airport. Here the instructor ordered the girl into the back seat and molested her, according to the report.
In June 2012 Phelps was terminated from the Universal Dance Academy for having an “emotional outburst,” during a dance recital. It so happens that was the same month records show phone communication between Phelps and the girl ended.
Phelps’s conviction in Orange County, Florida, was for two counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of attempted lewd or lascivious conduct.
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