Crime

Special Education Teacher Arrested on 14 Counts Involving a Teenage Boy, Palm Bay Police Say

Published on

By Robert W. Burns III
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PALM BAY, Fla. — A 41-year-old Melbourne special education teacher faces 14 felony counts after Palm Bay police say officers found her with a teenage boy inside a parked pickup truck early on June 23 and both admitted to engaging in sexual activity, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

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Michelle Lynn Hancock was arrested by the City of Palm Bay Police Department and booked into the Brevard County Jail. The charges were not bondable, and she was held for a first appearance.

According to the affidavit by Palm Bay’s Detective Hollcroft of the department’s Special Victims Unit, officers were sent shortly after 1:30 a.m. to the intersection of Dorchester Road Northwest and Ixora Avenue Northwest after a report of a suspicious red pickup truck parked on the side of the road. Officers reported making contact with Hancock and a juvenile male, and the affidavit states both acknowledged a sexual relationship.

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Investigators wrote that Hancock had worked as a special education teacher at a school the boy previously attended, and that she remained under contract with the school district through July 2026. The affidavit states the boy was not her student, but that the two became acquainted at the school and that she had helped him with schoolwork. Detectives allege the relationship continued by text message after the boy left to enroll in online education, and that the two arranged to meet on multiple occasions at the same Palm Bay location.

Detectives reported that a search of phones, conducted with Hancock’s consent, turned up sexually explicit messages between the two as well as images she allegedly admitted sending. Both phones were collected for forensic examination, the affidavit states. The boy’s family told police they wished to pursue charges.

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Based on the investigation, police charged Hancock with one count of engaging in sexual conduct with a student by an authority figure, one count of unlawful sexual activity with certain minors, four counts of lewd and lascivious touching of certain minors, three counts of traveling to meet a minor, three counts of unlawful use of an electronic device to solicit a minor, and two counts of transmission of material harmful to minors by electronic device.

The arrest was made by the Palm Bay Police Department, with the case assigned to its Special Victims Unit.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The charges described above are allegations contained in a law enforcement affidavit and have not been proven in court.