Mar. 13—The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
IOWA CITY — A former paraeducator at West High School who pursued a sexual relationship with a student pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation by a school employee and faces up to five years in prison. Joel Seve Munzila, 22, admitted in a written plea last week to engaging in a pattern of sexual contact with a student from Sept. 1, through Oct.
18, 2023. Sexual exploitation is a Class D felony and he faces up to five years in prison but will ask the court for a deferred judgment and probation. The prosecution will argue for a prison term, according to the Johnson County Attorney's Office.
At sentencing, a judge also will order Munzila to serve a special sentence of 10 years of parole following the prison term or probation. His sentencing is set April 24 in Johnson County District Court. Munzila, while working as a paraeducator, would regularly ask the student to leave school during the day and meet at a predetermined location in a nearby neighborhood, according to a criminal complaint.
He would then take the student to a residence in Coralville where they would have sex. He would take her back near the school and drop her off, in an attempt to conceal his relationship with the victim, the complaint stated. The student reported to police that this happened about five times in September and October 2023.
Munzila denied he ever had the student in his car, but investigators o.
