ANDERSON — A detective testified during a sentencing hearing Thursday that a 17-year-old former foreign exchange student did not want his host mother put in jail for having sex with him.

Anderson police Detective Heather McClain testified in Madison Circuit Court that an interpreter spoke with the victim and told her the victim did not want 32-year-old Tricia D. Mallernee to go to prison.

“(The interpreter) said they had no objection to the plea agreement or the sentencing,” McClain testified. “(The victim) was glad there would be no prison time to Ms. Mallernee because he did not want to see her children without their mother.”

As per the terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors, Judge Fredrick Spencer gave Mallernee a three-year suspended sentence on each of four counts of child solicitation. The judge gave Mallernee a one-year suspended sentence for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor.

Mallernee declined comment at the sentencing hearing on her attorney’s advice.

All of the sentences will be served at the same and she must register as a sex offender. Mallernee pleaded guilty as charged on June 3.

According to court documents:

Mallernee began having sex with the 17-year-old student about two weeks after his arrival in early July 2008.

The sexual relationship continued through April. The teen told investigators he initially wanted to be in the relationship. But later he tried to end it, fearing Mallernee was becoming “emotionally attached and he did not feel the same way.”

Mallernee allegedly threatened to have the boy removed from the home if he ended the relationship, law enforcement officials said. He told investigators that he was afraid that moving to a new home would mean having to stop participating in school activities. He continued in the relationship.

Although 17 is old enough to consent to a sexual relationship, because Mallernee was the teen’s host mother, she was considered his legal custodian, making her guilty of child seduction under Indiana law.

The relationship came to the attention of Indiana Department of Children’s Services case workers, who then contacted police. The Herald Bulletin doesn’t general identify sex crime victims.

Contact Shawn McGrath: 640-4883, shawn.mcgrath@heraldbulletin.com