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/ CBS Colorado
A former Lakewood teacher was sentenced last week in a sexual assault case that began after a special needs student left hints about an inappropriate relationship on a class assignment.
The boy’s writing was witnessed by another teacher in November 2023. At the time, the Lakewood Police Department was notified and an investigation launched.
It uncovered a sexual relationship between the 16-year-old and one of the school’s paraprofessionals, Imagine Kay Ewers.
Ewer, 28, was sentenced Jan. 31 to four years in the Colorado Department of Corrections and at least 10 years of sex offender probation. That probation could last the rest of her life, depending on Ewer’s success or failure with a sex offender treatment program.
Ewer pleaded guilty last November to sexual assault on a child and contributed to the delinquency of a minor, both felonies, a month before she was scheduled to go to trial. Prosecutors dismissed three other felony counts and one misdemeanor in exchange for her guilty plea.
Her plea came one year after Brady Exploration School staff called police.
According to a press release from the 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Lakewood’s criminal investigation revealed Ewer’s obvious “favoritism” for the victim was noticed by school staff “almost immediately” after Ewer began working there in August 2023. Evidence of a possibly inappropriate relationship began a month later, per prosecutors.
Ultimately, investigators found “thousands upon thousands upon thousands” of text messages, evidence of the introduction of drugs, alcohol, and weapons, and references to numerous sexual encounters, as described by prosecutors.
At the sentencing hearing, First Judicial District Attorney’s Office Special Victims Prosecutor Brynn Chase said Ewer brought illicit substances into the relationship with the boy, including fentanyl.
Ewer also repeatedly asked the boy to bring a gun to their sexual encounters and directed him “to bring the gun to school and shoot another faculty member in the leg,” said Chase.
The boy’s mother also spoke at the hearing.
“The defendant preyed on my son,” she stated, as indicated in the DA’s press release, “leading him to believe she genuinely cared for him, all while exploiting him for money and manipulating him into thinking he was ‘the one.’…What makes this even more painful is that I trusted the defendant…[H]ad I known what was truly happening, I would never have allowed her such close access to him.”
Ewer stood before the judge and expressed remorse.
“I just want to apologize to the victim and the victim’s family,” she said, according to the DA’s office. “I’m really sorry; this will never happen again.”
Jefferson County District Court Judge Chantel E. Contiguglia noted the case was Ewer’s first adult felony conviction, per the DA’s office. But she also expressed concern for aggravating circumstances of the case and the fact Ewer was arrested for drug possession in Douglas County while awaiting her trial in JeffCo.
Judge Contiguglia added conditions to Ewer’s probation, including supervisor’s access to her electronic devices over its duration. Ewer also must register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
Prior to her short stint with Brady Exploration, an alternative high school, Ewer had worked at various positions – teaching assistant, paraprofessional, and school nurse – within Jefferson County Public Schools since 2015.
A paraprofessional is a paid position. That person provides additional instruction and classroom management in support of a classroom’s licensed teacher. The Colorado Department of Education recommends school districts require an associate’s degree and successful competency assessment of paraprofessional applicants, but also suggests district’s lean on local hiring requirements.
Currently, as the department notes on its website, there are no qualification or credentialing requirements for paraprofessionals or teaching assistants that have been written into Colorado law.
“Over the past year, multiple individuals in positions of trust within Jefferson County have been accused and charged with similar offenses,” Prosecutor Chase stated in the DA’s press release. “While the school district plays a critical role in addressing and preventing such behavior, the criminal justice system’s ability to offer accountability only comes through collaboration and a common goal of safety.”
The Colorado state legislature created a task force in 2022 to improve coordination between individuals and institutions that are required to report evidence of child abuse. The impetus for the measure was the death of a 7-year-old Douglas County girl. The girl’s father sued a hospital for allegedly ignoring signs of his daughter’s abuse by her mother.
That task force released its final report in January.
The hospital and the dead girl’s father settled out of court.
Logan Smith is an assignment desk editor at CBS Colorado in Denver with more than 30 years of journalism experience in digital, television and print media.
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©2025 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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