The Abigail Simon case ended with the Grand Rapids tutor convicted in November 2014 of sexually abusing a 15-year-old student at Catholic Central High School, sentenced in January 2015 to eight to 25 years in prison, and released on parole on November 22, 2022. A jury found her guilty of three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of accosting a minor for immoral purposes after a nearly three-week trial in Kent County Circuit Court.
What Happened at Catholic Central
Simon, then 33, worked as a tutor and academic advisor at Catholic Central High School, a private school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2013 she began a sexual relationship with a sophomore boy who was 15 years old.
The relationship surfaced through roughly 1,000 text messages Simon exchanged with the student and with her own friends in the spring of 2013.1Daily Herald. School Tutor Gets 8-25 Years for Sex With Her Student, 15 In court, prosecutors read messages in which Simon declared her love for the boy, called her apartment “our pad,” and wrote, “If you were 25, I’d make you marry me next weekend.” She also sent him a photograph of herself in lingerie.2MLive. Texts Between 15-Year-Old and Tutor Read in Court
After police told her to cut off contact, Simon kept reaching the student through emails, a Twitter account, private messages, and phone calls, and asked him whether police were monitoring his phone. In a June 12, 2013 email she wrote: “I love you. Tell your mom you need this gone now. I need to be with you.”3Michigan Court of Appeals. People v. Abigail Marie Simon, No. 326149
The Trial and a Reversed-Roles Defense
Simon’s trial ran nearly three weeks in Kent County Circuit Court before Judge Paul Sullivan, starting in November 2014.4MLive. Attorney Says of Convicted Tutor: She Already Won Her attorney, Michael Manley of Flint, argued that Simon was the true victim and that the 15-year-old had physically and sexually abused her.
Testifying in her own defense, Simon admitted that three sexual penetrations occurred but said the boy forced her each time. She told the jury she was “scared of the teen,” described him as controlling, and said she went along because she “didn’t want to make him angry.”5Fox 17. Former Tutor: Teen Forced Me to Have Sex With Him The explicit text messages, she said, were sent only to “appease” him.3Michigan Court of Appeals. People v. Abigail Marie Simon, No. 326149
The student’s testimony cut in a different direction than his first statement to police. He had initially told investigators he forced Simon into the relationship and threatened her, but he recanted at trial and described a romance she had initiated. Asked about the earlier statements, he said he had lied to protect her: “I told her I would take the blame for everything.”6Detroit Free Press. Grand Rapids Tutor Sex Trial
Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Helen Brinkman projected the text messages for the jury and argued they were incompatible with any claim of coercion. The prosecution also called Thomas Cottrell, a specialist in child sexual abuse, who testified that adolescents are not equipped to make adult decisions and that the student was vulnerable to manipulation.3Michigan Court of Appeals. People v. Abigail Marie Simon, No. 326149
The Plea Offers She Rejected
Prosecutors made two plea offers before trial. The first, extended before August 2013 by Chief Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker, called for a guilty plea to second-degree criminal sexual conduct capped at one year in county jail; with good-behavior credit, Simon would likely have served under a year. The second, made after she was bound over to circuit court, offered guilty pleas to accosting a child for immoral purposes and assault with intent to commit sexual penetration, with a five-year maximum and guidelines of five to 23 months. Because she had no criminal record, she again probably would have served less than a year.7MLive (via BishopAccountability.org). Catholic Central Tutor Rejected Plea Offers She turned both down. Manley later said, “I make a recommendation, but it’s always the client who rejects or accepts the offer.”
Verdict and Sentence
The jury convicted Simon of three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct under Michigan Compiled Laws § 750.520b(1)(b)(v), which covers sexual penetration of a victim aged 13 to 16 by a perpetrator who holds a position of authority such as a teacher or school employee.8Justia. Michigan Compiled Laws § 750.520b – Criminal Sexual Conduct in the First Degree She was also convicted of accosting a minor for immoral purposes and acquitted of a fourth CSC-I count.3Michigan Court of Appeals. People v. Abigail Marie Simon, No. 326149
On January 13, 2015, Judge Sullivan imposed concurrent terms of eight to 25 years on the three CSC-I counts and 53 days on the accosting count.9WOOD-TV. Tutor Convicted of Abusing Student Released From Prison The court also ordered compliance with Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act and lifetime electronic monitoring, which is mandatory for a CSC-I conviction involving a minor.3Michigan Court of Appeals. People v. Abigail Marie Simon, No. 326149
The Appeals
On June 16, 2016, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld Simon’s convictions but sent the case back to Judge Sullivan on a narrow sentencing question. The panel found the judge had engaged in “judicial fact-finding” when scoring sentencing guidelines, and ordered him to determine whether he would have imposed a different sentence under the corrected guidelines.10WOOD-TV. Appeals Court Upholds Conviction of Abigail Simon The court rejected her other claims, including a Fourth Amendment challenge to lifetime electronic monitoring and an attack on the jury instructions on involuntariness.3Michigan Court of Appeals. People v. Abigail Marie Simon, No. 326149
The Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Simon then sought federal habeas relief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, which denied her petition. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed in a 2022 opinion by Judge Kethledge, joined by Judges Siler and Readler, holding that the trial court’s instructions as a whole adequately covered her defense theory.11U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Simon v. Brewer, No. 21-1405
The Civil Case Against the Diocese
A separate civil suit accused the Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese and school officials of negligence for failing to stop the relationship. Kent County Judge George Quist ruled for the diocese and school, and the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed in 2018. The courts found that the school had no knowledge of the relationship and that Simon’s earlier “personal space and professionalism issues” were not an unmistakable warning of abuse, writing that such behavior “cannot be considered an inevitable prelude to criminal sexual conduct.”12Legal News. Appeals Court Affirms Decision in Catholic Diocese Negligence Case
Release and Current Status
Simon was paroled on November 22, 2022, after serving roughly eight years of her eight-to-25-year sentence.9WOOD-TV. Tutor Convicted of Abusing Student Released From Prison She remains listed as active on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry.13Michigan Sex Offender Registry. Offender Details – Abigail Simon
One point worth noting for anyone searching the case by a purported victim’s name: the student’s identity does not appear in the court records or news coverage of this case, consistent with Michigan’s protections for minor victims of sexual abuse. Names circulating online are not confirmed by any court document.