{"id":18276,"date":"2025-10-24T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/18276\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:13:08","slug":"former-sanibel-counselor-facing-sexual-battery-held-without-bond-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/18276\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Sanibel counselor facing sexual battery held without bond | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Sanibel camp counselor<\/a>, accused of sexually assaulting children over a decade ago, will be held without bond following her first court appearance.<\/p>\n

Krystal Hurd, who worked at the Sanibel Recreation Center from 2005 to 2009, faces serious allegations detailed in a report by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. She appeared in court on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Hurd is accused of sexually assaulting one boy and three girls between 2008 and 2014.<\/p>\n

Tamara Verlinde, Hurd’s mother-in-law, reported the allegations to authorities in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I truly do believe there are more victims,” said Verlinde. “It’s something that’s not going to stop.”<\/p>\n

Sergeant Timothy Teter with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office testified about his investigation into Hurd.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Teter previously held a detective title with the sheriff’s office Special Victims Unit and began the investigation in 2020.<\/p>\n

Teter said he interviewed Hurd’s husband, who wanted to understand if there was a sexual relationship between Hurd and one of the victims.<\/p>\n

Hurd admitted to having sex with the victim, according to Teter.<\/p>\n

Hurd’s defense team argued for her release on bond, emphasizing that she had no issues for the past five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Krystal Hurd appeared visibly shaken in a courtroom as Judge Robert Branning ruled, she would be held without bond.<\/p>\n

Hurd now faces one felony count of familial or custodial sexual battery, which could be punishable by life in prison.<\/p>\n

Her next court appearance is scheduled for November 24.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Karsen is a Digital Specialist and has been with WINK News\u00a0since May 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Sanibel camp counselor, accused of sexually assaulting children over a decade ago, will be held without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325],"class_list":["post-18276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}