Cara Dickey, the former Buffalo teacher who admitted to raping a teenage student, will not be serving additional prison time for violating a condition of her parole. The 34-year-old former South Buffalo Charter School teacher was back in Erie County Court Thursday for failing to register as a sex offender. Dickey had served three years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree rape in 2009 for having sexual relations with a 14-year-old student.
Earlier this year, federal authorities arrested Dickey in Chicago on a parole violation just days after she was picked up there on a prostitution charge. She fled Buffalo after cutting off her monitoring bracelet.
The judge handed down a one-year sentence to be served concurrent with Dickey's parole violation, so she will not serve additional time. She is scheduled to be released in August 2014.
Before sentencing, Dickey's attorney, Chrysanthe Vergos, told the judge quote she wanted to talk about Dickey's "long and hopefully successful road to redemption."
"During that year, judge, she was a model parolee," Vergos said.
While on parole, Dickey lived and worked at Back To Basics Outreach Ministries. Minister Cal Fenner says he was surprised to learn Dickey ditched her ankle monitor and skipped parole.
"When I heard it, I was very distraught about it because she had so many good skills and a lot of ability to rise above whatever issues she had in the past. We gave her an opportunity to work with us. I think that if she would stayed with that, I know that she would have been on the right path," Fenner said.