Charges have been reduced against a former Gering Junior High School science teacher accused of a sexting incident involving a teenage girl.
31-year old Zachary Boness, an Alliance native and Chadron State College graduate, has apparently accepted a plea bargain.
Boness had faced 2 felonies and a misdemeanor but an amended complaint filed in Scottts Bluff County District Court dropped one felony, reduced the other to a misdemeanor, and reduced the original misdemeanor to a lower class offense.
A change of plea hearing has been scheduled for November 5th. No plea agreement has been filed, but those documents typically require a defendant to enter either a guilty or no-contest plea to the amended charges.
Boness was arrested in January as the result of a Nebraska State Patrol investigation involving the social media app Snapchat.
Authorities claimed Boness anonymously contacted a 16-year-old student requesting a sexting relationship.
The girl was able to identify him as a teacher and said she was uncomfortable with the conversation, at which point Boness broke it off.