Brittany Zamora: Charges, 20-Year Sentence, and Arizona Law

Brittany Zamora is a former Arizona elementary school teacher who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a 13-year-old student at Las Brisas Academy in Goodyear. She was sentenced in July 2019 after pleading guilty, and the case drew national attention both for how the abuse came to light and for her defense attorney’s attempt to blame the child minutes after sentencing.

What She Did

Zamora was a sixth-grade teacher in the Liberty Elementary School District. She used ClassCraft, a district-sanctioned educational platform, to open contact with a 13-year-old student, then gave him her personal cell number and Instagram handle.¹ The messages became sexually explicit, she sent the boy naked photographs, and the contact escalated to sexual encounters at the school and in her car.² At least one encounter at the school happened with another student present.³

The victim’s parents had installed a monitoring app on their son’s phone. It flagged certain keywords, they checked the device, and they found the messages between Zamora and the boy. They took screenshots, reported it to the school principal, and the principal contacted the Goodyear Police Department.⁴

Charges and 20-Year Sentence

Zamora was arrested in March 2018 on nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of molestation of a child, and one count of furnishing harmful material.⁴ She pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a minor, attempted molestation of a child, and public sexual indecency.³

On July 12, 2019, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens sentenced her to 20 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections, along with two lifetime terms of probation for the molestation counts and lifetime sex offender registration on release. The judge noted that Zamora had pleaded guilty, expressed remorse, and had no prior criminal history. In court, Zamora told the judge she was “ashamed” and “completely remorseful,” said the conduct was “completely out of place” for her, and told the court she was “not a threat to society.”⁵ Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery called the sentence “fitting for an individual who exploited her position as a teacher to groom and then abuse a young teen student.”⁶

Warnings the School Ignored

Weeks before the parents found the messages, the school had already been told something was wrong. On February 7, 2018, three students gave Principal Timothy Dickey written statements describing “elements of favoritism” between Zamora and the 13-year-old. Dickey interviewed only one of the three students. He also spoke with Zamora and the victim, who both denied a sexual relationship, and he concluded there was “no evidence” of misconduct.⁷

He did not tell the boy’s parents. He did not call police. He did not pull Zamora from the classroom. He held a meeting with the students who had come forward and, according to reporting by the Arizona Republic, “spoke about the dangers of rumors.”⁸ The alleged sexual abuse began nine days later, on February 16. Dickey later acknowledged it was a mistake to speak with only one student.⁷ Lawyers for the district conceded in court filings that Dickey did not notify parents or law enforcement, but argued he had not violated Arizona’s mandatory reporting law.

The Defense Attorney Blamed the 13-Year-Old

Minutes after Zamora told the judge she was remorseful, her attorney, Belen Olmedo Guerra, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse and tried to shift responsibility onto the child. Guerra called the boy “very aggressive” in his interactions with Zamora, said he had “many, many behavioral issues” and “boundary issues,” and described him as “obsessed with Brittany.”⁹ She argued the relationship “was not between a young child and Brittany — this was a teenager.”¹⁰

Guerra also read a statement from Zamora saying she had been “unfairly treated” by the state of Arizona and was “not the monster the media has projected me to be.”⁹ The gap between her courtroom apology and the statement outside was widely noted.

Civil Lawsuits and Her Husband’s Role

The victim’s family sued the Liberty Elementary School District for $2.5 million, alleging the district failed to monitor the ClassCraft platform, failed to properly report misconduct, and that Principal Dickey failed to act on credible warnings.¹ The suit was later settled for an undisclosed amount.¹¹

The family also sued Zamora’s then-husband, Daniel Zamora, alleging he knew about the relationship and did not report it. According to police reports summarized by the Arizona Republic, Daniel called the victim’s parents the night before his wife’s arrest, defended her as a “good teacher,” and pleaded with the father not to involve police. On the day of the arrest, police reports indicated he coached his wife during calls with the parents, telling her to “cry, apologize and do whatever she could to seem helpless,” and texted her: “Don’t admit to any relationship. Because we both know there isn’t one and nothing happened. Just stupid fantasy text that went too far.”¹¹ That suit was settled in 2019 for a confidential amount.¹²

Where She Is Now

Brittany Zamora filed for divorce from Daniel Zamora in April 2020, and the divorce has been finalized.¹³ She is serving her sentence at the ASPC-Perryville women’s prison in Arizona and is expected to be released around 2038, when lifetime probation and sex offender registration will begin.¹¹

The Arizona Law That Followed

The case was among several that exposed gaps in Arizona’s mandatory reporting rules for schools. In 2025, Governor Katie Hobbs signed Senate Bill 1437. The law added substitute teachers and school governing board members to the list of mandatory reporters, required school employees to report allegations directly to law enforcement and the Department of Child Safety rather than only to supervisors, required that student victims be interviewed by trained forensic interviewers instead of school staff, and required that allegations against school personnel be reported to the Arizona State Board of Education within three days.¹⁴

1
ABC15. Parents Suing Valley School District Allege Goodyear Teacher Groomed Student for Sex
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ABC7 New York. Female Teacher Accused of Sex With 13-Year-Old in Classroom
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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Brittany Zamora Sentencing
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6ABC. Arizona Teacher Arrested for Alleged Sexual Misconduct With Student
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ABC15. Goodyear Teacher Sentenced for Sexual Contact With Boy
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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Brittany Zamora Sentencing
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People. Other Students Warned Principal About Teacher Accused of Sex With Student
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The Arizona Republic. Brittany Zamora Principal’s Reaction to Reports of Abuse Stunning
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Oxygen. Brittany Zamora Lawyer Suggests Teen Victim at Fault for Sexual Relationship
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The Arizona Republic. Brittany Zamora Attorney Shifts Blame to 13-Year-Old Sexual Abuse Victim
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The Arizona Republic. Brittany Zamora Documentary
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KTAR. Brittany Zamora’s Husband Settled With Victim’s Family, Attorneys Say
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People. Brittany Zamora Child Sex Abuser Files for Divorce
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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Senate Bill 1437 Announcement