Plea deal signed in teacher-teen affair

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A former Saranac High School teacher who had an affair with a student has signed a plea agreement regarding charges he faces in Kent County.

Krag Sanford, 59, had an affair with the female student, who was 16 at the time, which police said started in the summer of 2010.

On Monday afternoon at a preliminary hearing for the charge he faces in Kent County, Sanford agreed to plead no contest to felony accosting a minor for immoral purposes.

Sanford will also forfeit his Michigan teaching certificate and have to register as a sex offender.

In exchange, the prosecutor agreed not to pursue charges of criminal sexual conduct.

The prosecutor will also recommend that Sanford will be sentenced within guidelines. The prosecutor said that recommended time was between zero and nine months in prison, though the crime is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $4,000 fine.

Sanford is expected to take another plea agreement Tuesday regarding the two charges he faces in Ionia County of distributing sexually explicit materials to a minor.

The agreements were worked out between both counties' prosecutors and Sanford's lawyer Bruce Lincoln.

In court, a police report was referenced that showed that Sanford admitted he had sex with the 16-year-old on Nov. 27, 2010.

That's after Sanford was permitted to submit his resignation, but before a separation agreement with the district was approved in December 2010 and before his resignation became effective in June 2011 -- which means Sanford was still a faculty member at the school.

--See timeline below for complete details of the case--

Kent County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker said one concern was whether Sanford was in a position of authority over the student when the affair occurred.

The student involved in the affair, now 17, has said she is about nine weeks pregnant with Sanford's child. The two filed for a marriage license in March.

"It's a love story. That's what it is," Lincoln told 24 Hour News 8 after the hearing.

Sanford has been denied permission to have contact with the teen, despite a request she made to an Ionia County judge last week.

--Below: A timeline of the Krag Sanford case--