Fired Natrona County Tutor Sentenced for Sexually Abusing Student

A former Natrona County School District tutor will serve six to 12 years behind bars for sexually abusing a student.

Jason Gerrit Waugaman, who had served as a substitute teacher, a part-time teacher, tutor and speech and debate coach for the school district, was handed the sentence during a hearing in Natrona County District Court on Tuesday.

Waugaman was initially charged with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. However, as part of a plea agreement reached in May, those charges were dropped and Waugaman instead pleaded guilty to a single count of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

During the change of plea hearing, Waugaman did not explicitly admit to having sex with the victim. He did, however, admit to touching her through her clothing.

Charges were initially filed in January.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, a young woman filed a complaint about a sex offense to the Casper police department on January 13.

The woman told police the incident happened when she was in the seventh grade at a local junior high school during the 2014-2015 school year.

The affidavit states that the victim was on social media when Waugaman contacted her before they moved the conversation to another social media site. At that point, Waugaman began making sexual comments and they exchanged nude photographs, the affidavit states.

According to court documents, the victim agreed to meet with Waugaman. She sneaked out of an apartment in the middle of the night and met up with Waugaman. Then, they drove to a park and had sex.

When the victim filed the complaint in January, a detective asked her if she would be willing to contact Waugaman to continue the investigation. She called Waugaman and asked if he really loved her or if it was only about sex. He said he did love her and said something to the effect that if they hadn't had sex, it wouldn't have changed their relationship, court documents state.