Emma Delaney Hancock (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation)
Court documents shed more light on the felony charges that a 26-year-old Oklahoma substitute teacher and wife of the local police chief faces for alleged sex offenses against students.
Now-former Wellston Public Schools substitute teacher Emma Delaney Hancock, also identified as the daughter of the local mayor, allegedly boasted that she would not be caught when telling a 15-year-old male student it was true that she wanted to “make out” with the 15-year-old male she’s accused of sexually abusing.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) probe began in earnest on Nov. 8, 2022, which is when authorities said they interviewed the 15-year-old victim. OSBI Lieutenant Kevin Garrett said that the teen told authorities Hancock asked for his number on Oct. 6 to text an “assignment that he needed to get answers from,” the probable cause affidavit said.
Weeks later, authorities said, the teen sent Hancock a shirtless Snapchat from the “locker room,” the affidavit said.
“Are we sending half naked pictures now?” the substitute teacher allegedly asked. “I don’t know, are we?” the student apparently answered.
“Are you trying to get me to lose my job?” Hancock allegedly asked.
From there, the teacher allegedly “snapped a picture from her bath tub, about six inches above her knees and down.” Investigators said evidence that matched this description was found in the form of two photos on Hancock’s cell phone.
“The next night,” the affidavit said, Hancock sent the teen “a picture with a blanket covering her breast downward.”
“The picture was dim and [the teen] believed it had a filter on it,” documents said. When the teen asked Hancock to “move the blanket,” she allegedly “sent another picture with the blanket moved showing her breasts.”
Between Oct. 23 and Oct. 30, the substitute teacher and student “sent nude snap pictures, and nudes and masturbation snap videos back and forth to each other.”
On Oct. 26, a 16-year-old girl allegedly received a Snapchat message from Hancock asking her to tell the 15-year-old student to go to her room at lunch because she had something for him.
“The message also said to keep it quiet,” the affidavit said.
The girl knew the 15-year-old boy was in the lunch room with another 16-year-old girl, so she texted that girl Hancock’s message, the affidavit said.
The boy then “got up and left, did not even say bye,” the affidavit said.
On Halloween, Hancock subbed in a Home Economics class, authorities said. During the lunch break, she allegedly let the victim take a “hit” from her vape pen and asked him if he wanted to make out.
After the teen replied yes, the two went into the pantry in the classroom, authorities said.
It’s alleged that Hancock “grabbed” the boy and “aggressively kissed him.” The boy said she “put her tongue in his mouth four or five times” over the span of 30 seconds, according to the affidavit.
On Nov. 3, Hancock subbed in a Biology class, gave the teen her vape pen to “hit” and kissed the boy “five or ten times,” again putting her tongue in the boy’s mouth, authorities alleged.
The substitute allegedly “rubbed the teen’s crotch area for ten seconds, rubbing on his penis,” and the teen grabbed her left buttocks, documents said.
The male student allegedly told another teen boy in early November that Hancock had expressed wanting to “make out.” The second boy, a witness, allegedly asked Hancock after Family and Consumer Sciences Class if that was true.
Hancock allegedly admitted it was true and “went on to tell” the student “it would not amount to anything because they were not going to get caught,” the affidavit said.
In addition, Hancock allegedly showed this witness a penis drawn on her foot in a Nov. 1 hallway video.
Hancock allegedly asked the teen “do you like my penis?”
“No, I don’t see that, don’t do that,” the teen allegedly replied.
The former substitute teacher also faces allegations that she showed two other students — ages 15 and 13 — videos of herself from a Halloween party kissing a female and putting her mouth “on a fake penis.”
After showing the students the video, Hancock told them that the penis was not real, documents alleged.
A search warrant unearthed the videos in question, authorities say.
The substitute teacher reportedly did lose her job and was banned from the Wellston Public Schools campus after the allegations began swirling in November. OSBI took the lead on the investigation because Hancock is the wife of Wellston Police Chief Alfred Hancock. She is also the daughter of Wellston Mayor Paul E. Whitnah, News 9 reported, citing the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Hancock faces four criminal counts — two counts of soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor by use of technology and two counts of lewd or indecent acts against a child under 16. Three of the charges specify the 15-year-old boy as the victim; one of the soliciting sexual conduct or communication charges stems from the “fake penis” videos allegedly shown to the other 15- and 13-year-old students. The charges, which are all felonies, would require Hancock to register as a sex offender if she is convicted.
“A person is guilty of violating the provisions of this section if the person knowingly transmits any prohibited communication by use of any technology defined herein,” the solicitation statute says. “Any violation of the provisions of this section shall be a felony, punishable by a fine in an amount not to exceed Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), or by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than ten (10) years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”
The felony lewd or indecent acts charges are even more serious, as they are punishable by at least 3 years and up to 20 years in prison.
After a bench warrant for the suspect’s arrest was issued on April 12, Hancock pleaded not guilty alongside her defense attorney Bill Coyle and was released on a $50,000 bond, the court docket says.
She is expected in court next at 1:30 p.m. on June 22.
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