State drops most felony counts against pregnant Doral teacher accused of sex with teen boy

Prosecutors won’t be pursuing most charges against Heiry Calvi, the pregnant ex-Doral teacher accused of having a romantic relationship with a 15-year-old male student.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday announced it would not file formal charges, including lewd and lascivious battery, against the 41-year-old Calvi. Instead, the state announced it would only file one felony under a Florida law that makes it a crime for someone in the position of authority to commit an “offense” against a student.

She is still accused of unlawfully soliciting or engaging in “sexual conduct and/or a relationship of a romantic nature” with a student, according to the formal charge filed in Miami-Dade circuit court.

But the decision means Calvi does not risk becoming a sex offender, and lessens the amount of time she could face in prison. The crime is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutor Jacob Castiñeira, of the sexual battery unit, made the decision to pursue only one count “based on the conversation with the victim,” according to the State Attorney’s Office.

Calvi’s defense lawyer had previously insisted that the teenager denied to police having sex with Calvi.

“The allegations against Ms. Calvi were based on middle-school rumors. This is why it is so important to let the process play out before a person is crucified in the media,” defense lawyer Orlando Rodriguez said. “Thankfully, before formal charges are filed, our legal system provides a process in which a prosecutor reviews the evidence and interviews the witnesses.”

Rodriguez said the dropping of the sex-crime charges show Calvi has “already been vindicated” and he expected the last charge “will ultimately be dismissed as well.”

Calvi’s arrest was one in a slew of recent cases involving teachers accused of sexually assaulting students. The latest happened this week, as John A. Ferguson High teacher Aaron Hamid, 27, was arrested and accused of engaging in sex acts with a 16-year-old student.

In all, there are currently at least six former teachers from Miami-Dade County currently awaiting trial on allegations they engaged in illegal sexual relationships, or attacks, against students.

Calvi, who was arrested last month, is pregnant. The father, her defense attorney said, is her husband. Another pregnant teacher, Brittiny Lopez-Murray, formerly of Hialeah Middle, was arrested the same week on similar allegations. Her arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 15.

According to Doral and Miami-Dade police, the investigation began in March when staff members reported to police that several students said a 15-year-old boy was showing off a cellphone video of him having sex with an adult woman. “The students reported the female in the video as Mrs. Calvi,” according to one police report.

The boy initially told Doral police that she was simply his tutor and nothing more, police said. But his parents agreed to turn his iPhone over to police investigators, who ran a forensic analysis and discovered a slew of evidence, according to arrest reports. Among them: an audio recording the teen sent to a friend instructing the person to lie to police about the relationship, messages between him and Calvi “in which they each state to one another I love you” and screenshots that appear to show Calvi was paying for his Uber rides and Ubereats meals.

When confronted by police, the teen acknowledged “that they had sex, and reiterated he is not a victim [and] she never raped him,” according to a police report. Investigators also found a photo believed to be the teen — wearing a distinct “Thug” pendant — and a topless woman believed to be Calvi, one report said. She later identified herself in the photo, Doral police said.