A former St. Xavier High School employee serving time for sexually abusing a student is now asking a Hamilton County judge to let her out early. Emily Nutley has served roughly 16 months of a three-year prison sentence and wants to swap the rest of her time behind bars for up to five years of community control.
Nutley is incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women and is currently scheduled to be released on June 9, 2028, according to WLWT. She was convicted of two counts of sexual battery, both third-degree felonies, for sexual conduct with a student at the school where she worked. In June 2025, Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Jennifer Branch sentenced her to three years in prison on each count, to be served concurrently, for a total three-year term.
The case first became public when St. Xavier announced on October 11, 2024, that Nutley had been fired following an internal investigation, as reported by FOX19. She was indicted on six counts of sexual battery but pleaded guilty to only two, a plea deal detailed by Dayton 24/7 Now. During sentencing, she acknowledged violating the student's trust.
What Nutley's Attorneys Are Asking For
In a motion filed on September 30, Nutley's attorneys asked Branch to grant judicial release and place her under supervision by the Hamilton County Adult Probation Department, per the station's report. She is asking to be placed on community control for up to five years if the request is granted. Her proposed conditions include completing the A.W.A.R.E. sex-offense treatment program, receiving mental-health counseling, abstaining from alcohol and non-prescribed drugs, and submitting to random testing.
Her attorneys said probation officials have reviewed and approved her proposed residence. Even if released, Nutley would remain subject to five years of mandatory post-release control and Tier III sex-offender registration requirements, and a judge could send her back to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence if she violates the terms of community control.
Programs, Work and a Letter of Apology
Per the motion, Nutley has completed CHOICES, a nine-month cognitive-behavioral program at the Ohio Reformatory for Women designed for women who committed sexual offenses. She works in the warden's personnel office and at the prison recreation center, where she teaches conditioning and pickleball classes, and she facilitates a co-parenting group and has tutored other women working toward their GEDs, the same account states.
According to the filing, Nutley also attends weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and Bible study, studies full time through Sinclair Community College, and has earned a chemical dependency counseling assistant credential. After completing victim-awareness work as part of CHOICES, she wrote an apology letter to the former student, saying she accepts responsibility and accountability for her actions. She said she will continue working on the importance of boundaries in her relationships and will keep doing the work to demonstrate change.
No Ruling Yet, and How Cincinnati Has Handled Similar Cases
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motion, and Branch has not ruled on the request, the outlet reported. Nutley's attorneys have also requested a hearing and her appearance in court. During her original sentencing, prosecutors had sought a five-year term while the victim, his family and St. Xavier pushed for 10 years, according to FOX19 — Branch ultimately imposed three.
FOX19's reporting also places Nutley's sentence within a pattern of similar Cincinnati-area cases: a Colerain High School science teacher received two years in prison for sexual battery in 2013, a Dater High School special education teacher and intervention specialist was sentenced to three years in 2014, and a New Miami High School teacher was sentenced to three years in 2015 after a sexual relationship with one student and explicit messages sent to another. Under Ohio law, a court may, at its discretion, reduce a period of community control by the amount of time an offender already spent in jail or prison for the offense, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
