Former Hopkinsville High School Band Director Jordan Seth Peveler was indicted Friday by a Christian County Grand Jury for alleged sex crimes against juveniles, and his wife—former assistant commonwealth’s attorney Hannah Peveler—was indicted for tampering with a witness.
The indictment against 30-year old Seth Peveler includes a new allegation that between June of 2017 and May of last year, he engaged in sexual intercourse with a student under the age of 18 on two occasions in the instrument closet at Hopkinsville High School during school hours.
Additional counts of rape on the indictment allege he engaged in sexual intercourse with a minor female on two occasions in the summer of 2017—with at least one of those at his home in Hopkinsville.
He is indicted on four counts of third-degree rape, four counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor.
The sodomy counts allege he engaged in sexual activity with a juvenile female once in the school instrument closet, twice at Peveler’s home and another time at a location that’s not specified.
The unlawful transaction with a minor charge is for allegedly providing marijuana to the juvenile victim before having her perform a sex act on him. The indictment notes Seth Peveler was in a position of authority or special trust over his alleged victims.
All of the counts are for incidents in 2017 or 2018.
Twenty-nine-year-old Hannah Peveler is indicted for three counts of tampering with a witness—which is a Class D felony.
The indictment alleges that between May 9 and June 5 of this year, Hannah Peveler attempted to convince a witness to avoid testifying in an official court proceeding with intent to influence the outcome in the potential case.
Commonwealth’s Rick Boling says the charges against Hannah Peveler arose during the ongoing criminal investigation into her husband’s alleged actions and she resigned from her position earlier this week.
Boling says he doesn’t know the facts of this case, since his office is not prosecuting it, but he thinks Hannah Peveler struggled to maintain being an assistant commonwealth’s attorney while dealing with the emotional fallout of her husband’s case
The charges against the Pevelers are being prosecuted by special commonwealth’s attorney Dennis Foust.
Seth Peveler is scheduled to be in Christian Circuit Court for arraignment on July 3.