A former Henderson County teacher was convicted by a jury July 5 in Henderson County Superior Court for enabling a sex offender’s unlawful school visit. Former Flat Rock Middle School employee Maria Walker, 51, was found guilty of aiding and abetting a sex offender “on a child premises.” The sex offender was her husband.
Jeffery Walker, 48, pleaded guilty to charges of being a sex offender on a child premises.
Neither will serve jail time, but both were placed on probation, according to Henderson County District Attorney Andrew R. Murray, who spoke to the Citizen Times July 6.
Walker was terminated from her job in Dec. 2021 immediately following her arrest by the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office on charges of having a registered sex offender on campus, according to previous reporting from media.
The Sheriff’s Office was notified on Dec. 16, 2021, that Walker was married to a registered sex offender, Jeffery Walker, and that he had been seen in a vehicle on the school campus. There was an anonymous report made that Walkers husband, a known registered sex offender, was on the school’s campus according to a report from Hendersonville news right after the incident.
It is illegal for a registered sex offender to be on school property.
The couple was arrested on Dec. 16, 2021, according to the court judgment.
Jeffery Walker is a registered sex offender in North Carolina due to a conviction in 2001 of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, according to the North Carolina sex offender and public protection registry.
Maria Walker was placed on one year of unsupervised probation and Jeffery Walker was placed on two years of supervised probation, according to the court judgment.