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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jury acquits former Lake Pend Oreille HS teacher of charges she had sex with student

FILE - Lake City High School teacher Nichole Thiel in 2006. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

A former Lake Pend Oreille High School teacher was acquitted last week of charges that she had sex with a teenage student.

A Bonner County jury found Nichole Thiel, 48, not guilty of felony sexual battery on Oct. 12. She faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about an hour before returning with a not-guilty verdict, according to the Bonner County Daily Bee. Thiel’s friends and family in the courtroom let out a hushed cheer when the verdict was read aloud.

Prosecutors accused Thiel of having a sexual relationship with one of her students while she was a teacher at the high school. The teen told police the two had sex in her condominium in Sandpoint in December 2015, when she was 46 and the student was 16.

Thiel, who was removed from her job as an administrator at the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy following news of the allegations, has consistently maintained her innocence throughout the 8-month ordeal, said her attorney Michael Palmer.

“The whole thing is unfortunate,” he said. “It all escalated very quickly.”

Charter Principal Dan Nicklay, in a Facebook message to a Spokesman-Review reporter in February, said then that he understood some people had been “blindsided” by the news, but were advised by the academy’s attorney to remove her from the school.

Spokespersons from the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy and Pend Oreille School District did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Since being fired as an administrator, Thiel has struggled to find work and remains unemployed due to the allegations, her attorney said. She still has a pending administrative proceeding to determine whether Idaho will permanently pull her teaching credentials, and is a party in a tort claim filed by the teen against the Pend Oreille School District.

Thiel declined to speak for this story due to the other pending legal matters.