By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com
Published: 00:41 BST, 5 April 2019 | Updated: 01:01 BST, 5 April 2019
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Justine Karen Nelson, 31, took the witness stand on Wednesday in Fresno, California
A married former middle school teacher has testified in her own defense, saying that she was pressured and coerced into performing oral sex on a male student in 2016.
Justine Karen Nelson, 31, took the witness stand on Wednesday in Fresno, California to defend herself against felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor and oral copulation.
In her telling, what seemed an innocent friendship with a then 14-year-old student turned to threats and blackmail, and she performed the sex act out of fear of losing custody of her young child.
Nelson testified that her friendship with the student began with conversations about basketball in her classroom at Tenaya Middle School, before progressing to direct messages on Instagram and secretive text messages, the Fresno Bee reported.
Nelson, seen with her husband and young daughter. She testified that she feared the student would reveal their inappropriate communications and she would lose custody of the child
Nelson testified that she was going through a rough patch with her husband at the time and
