Teacher gets prison time for sexually abusing student in juvenile detention after boy claims tryst was a ‘way to kill time while he was locked up’

A 28-year-old Kentucky teacher has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after she sexually abused a male student in juvenile detention.

Elena Bardin, a mother to a five-year-old girl, was also charged with trying to get the 17-year-old boy locked up in the Adair County Juvenile Detention Center to murder her husband, though she was acquitted on that count.

The jury convicted her of first-degree sexual abuse, unlawful transaction with a minor and distribution of obscene material to a minor, CourtTV reported.

They also recommended the double-digit sentence, and the judge agreed, expressing disgust over the 193 sexually explicit letters found in the teen’s cell that Bardin allegedly sent him, according to Kentucky State Police.

‘The letters you sent, which they were juicy, they were things you’d see in a triple-x movie, and completely inappropriate, obviously, and I think you know that for a young man that age,’ Circuit Judge Samuel Spalding said at the sentencing hearing on Thursday.

‘And for an educator, it was incumbent upon you to set a better example. I will say though, the 193 pages of letters, pictures, everything else, it depicts a very intelligent and articulate young woman who was clearly articulating her thoughts and desires to this kid’ he added.

Spalding also reminded the court of the testimony from Bardin’s supervisor, who said Bardin had been told to stop what she was doing with the teen.

The teen, who was moved to another section of the facility at one point, appeared decidedly unbothered by the abuse he endured, testifying that his contact with Bardin was a ‘way to kill time while he was locked up’.

Elena Bardin, a 28-year-old teacher, was sentenced to 14 years behind bars this week after a Kentucky jury convicted her of sexually abusing a 17-year-old boy in juvenile detention

Bardin was found not guilty of soliciting the boy to kill her husband, Michael Bardin, with whom she shares a five-year-old daughter

The boy also testified that he never planned to follow through with the alleged murder-for-hire plot against Michael Bardin, her husband.

The boy faces an unrelated murder charge in Jefferson County, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

In one of the letters Bardin wrote to the boy, she said, ‘I know you say you’ll take care of him, but shouldn’t someone else do it to take the suspicion away from you?’

Bardin was arrested shortly after Bardin’s letters were found in the boy’s cell in April 2025.

Just over a month later, her husband filed for divorce from her and pursued sole custody of their daughter.

Bardin, who did not testify in her own defense, will now have to register as a sex offender for 20 years.