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Christopher James Hooker booking mug, April 6, 2012.
(Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department)
The former high school teacher from Modesto who drew attention from around the world after leaving his wife to romance with one of his students was arrested Friday on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor for an incident police said happened 14 years ago.
The charge stems from a relationship Christopher James Hooker allegedly had with a 17-year-old in 1998 while he was a teacher at Davis High School in Modesto.
Hooker was arrested at his home this morning and booked into Stanislaus County Jail, police said. He was in court briefly on Friday afternoon. A Stanislaus County Superior Court judge entered a not guilty plea for Hooker and appointed him a public defender.
Hooker, 41, moved in with Jordan Powers, 18, on Feb. 22, the day he resigned from Modesto City Schools. Jordan had been one of his students at Enochs High School.
Hooker, the business teacher at Enochs, said he left his wife and three daughters the week before. The school district had suspended him Feb. 3.
The couple met when Powers was a freshman at Enochs, but both say the romance didn't bloom until months after she turned 18 on Sept. 5.
The victim in the case in which the charge was filed was a 17-year-old girl at Davis High. Hooker was a teacher at Davis at the time and later transferred to Enochs.
A police news release said Hooker befriended the girl and developed a romantic relationship with her. Police had disclosed that they were investigating Hooker's relationship with Jordan Powers.
Hooker's relationship with Jordan Powers came to public attention after the girl's mother began castigating Hooker on her Facebook page.
On her page this afternoon, Tammie Mullins Powers wrote:
"Yes, confirmed James Hooker is in custudy. I am with my daughter as I post this."
She reunited with Jordan Powers and shortly after noon packed her daughter's things at Hooker's Modesto apartment. She sent a text message to Modesto Bee reporter Nan Austin, saying she was taking Jordan to catch a flight to an undisclosed location this afternoon.
Since news of the affair became public, Hooker and Jordan Powers appeared on national TV talk shows. Kristin Olsen, an assemblywoman from Modesto, introduced legislation that would outlaw teacher-student relationships and strip offending teachers of their pensions.
On her Twitter account, Olsen wrote: "So pleased to hear of James Hooker's arrest! He has shown a pattern of predatory behavior and must be stopped."
Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/06/2147032/modesto-police-arrest-ex-enochs.html#storylink=cpy
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