West Sacramento teacher accused of sex with student in Washington appears in Yolo court
A West Sacramento school teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old male student in Washington state when she worked there appeared remotely Monday afternoon in a Yolo County courtroom.
Natasha Nicole Polk, 33, accused of sex crimes in Washington, was ordered to return to Yolo Superior Court for a judge to review a Washington extradition order.
Polk was arrested in West Sacramento last month following an investigation by the Centralia Police Department. Polk was booked at the Yolo County Jail and released a few days later after posting a $50,000 bail bond.
The accused teacher, who was in custody at the time, made her first appearance Aug. 23 in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland. She was arraigned on a charge of being a fugitive from justice. Authorities in Washington state obtained an arrest warrant for Polk.
Since her release on bail, Polk returned to Lewis County in Washington, where she was arraigned Sept. 12 in Lewis Superior Court. The judge there scheduled Polk to return to court Nov. 14 to schedule her trial, court records show.
On Monday afternoon, Polk appeared briefly in Yolo Superior Court via an online teleconferencing call. Judge Clara M. Levers exonerated Polk’s $50,000 bail bond in California and dismissed the extradition order since she has since appeared in court in Washington.
As part of the investigation, Centralia police learned she was employed as a teacher with the Davis Joint Unified School District in Northern California and was set to begin another school year in Yolo County days before her arrest.
Investigation began in October 2023
In October 2023, Centralia police began investigating allegations of a relationship between the teacher and student. Centralia is 21 miles south of Olympia, the state’s capital. Polk, when she worked in Centralia, lived in Lacey, a suburb east of Olympia.
“The alleged acts occurred in 2020 while the victim was in the 8th grade and continued for a time after he completed middle school,” Centralia police announced last month in a news release. “The investigation revealed evidence that (the teacher allegedly) provided the victim with marijuana, alcohol, and vapes.”
Police also alleged that she used her status as an educator to gain access to the victim while he was incarcerated at Lewis County Juvenile detention facility on unrelated issues.
The teacher, in 2021, allegedly would drive the victim to her apartment in Lacey and engage in sex after providing him with alcohol, according to police. Also the same year, she allegedly traveled back to Washington state and had sex with the victim at a vacation rental in Tacoma, police say.
Davis Joint Unified School District officials said they were notified on Aug. 22 that Polk, a teacher at Harper Junior High School in Davis since August 2022, was arrested Aug. 21 in West Sacramento. They also learned then that Polk was accused of sex crimes involving a minor in Centralia, Washington in 2020.
School district officials said they took immediate action and placed Polk on administrative leave. Maria Clayton, a school district spokesperson, said last month that district officials were “shocked and disturbed” after hearing of Polk’s arrest and the allegations.
“These charges are of the most serious nature,” Clayton said in a written statement. “The district will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and will do so until a final resolution of the charges.”
The Davis school district officials encouraged anyone who might have concerns or information about Polk to call the Davis Police Department at 530-747-5400.
This story was originally published September 23, 2024 at 4:03 PM.
