Ex-Miss Kentucky Ramsey BethAnn Bearse sentenced to prison on sex crime charge

A FORMER Miss Kentucky winner has been sentenced to prison after admitting she exchanged sexual photos with a teenage student when she was working as a school teacher.

Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, 29, received her two-year sentence for the sex crime in Kanawha County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Bearse, who was crowned Miss Kentucky in 2014 under her maiden name of Carpenter, was also sentenced to an additional 10 years of supervised release, according to Kanawha Assistant Prosecutor Meshell Jarrett.

The former middle school teacher was initially charged with four counts of sending obscene material to a minor.

She later pleaded guilty to one count of possessing material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct in December 2019, news outlets reported.

TOPLESS PHOTOS

According to authorities, Bearse, 29, admitted to exchanging topless photos with the 15-year-old student on Snapchat between August and October 2018 while she was working in a West Virginia school.

A parent of the male student reportedly found the images on the teenager’s phone.

Previously, Bearse said she meant to send the photo to her husband rather than the teen.

Having become “afraid to not appease” the teen, Bearse claims, she then started sending additional photos that the student asked for.

On Tuesday, the former teacher claimed “full responsibility” for her actions.

Kanawha County school district said Bearse, a former teacher at Andrew Jackson Middle School in Cross Lanes, no longer works there.

Court officials said Bearse will be required to register as a lifetime sex offender.