FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Daphne Duret
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH — Former Rosarian Academy teacher Stephen Budd faces a life in prison even on the low end of a possible punishment if convicted of sexual battery charges surrounding allegations he traded candy for sex with 9-year-old students, prosecutors said this morning.

Budd was arrested in April at his West Palm Beach apartment, not long after a former student of his at Rosarian Academy School, a private Catholic school in West Palm Beach, told police that during the 2006-07 school year, Budd would give them “Budd bucks,” which she explained was candy in return for sexual acts.

At this morning’s hearing in his case, Assistant State Attorney Jessica Kahn told Circuit Judge Karen Miller that according to sentencing guidelines, the lowest recommended sentence for the 51-year-old if convicted would be life in prison.

Budd,…