{"id":349400,"date":"2026-07-23T02:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/349400\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:26:09","slug":"florida-town-manager-candidate-who-had-sex-with-high-schoolers-arrested-for-violating-her-sex-offender-registry-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/349400\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida town manager candidate who had sex with high schoolers arrested for violating her sex offender registry requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Florida town manager candidate who was convicted of having sexual relationships with three high school boys landed back behind bars this week for violating sex offender registry requirements.<\/p>\n

April Watson\u2019s bid to become the Town of Jay\u2019s manager \u2013 a step up from her most recent role as operations manager for the 525-person panhandle town \u2013 was left in limbo Monday after she was nabbed during a \u201csex offender registry violation roundup\u201d by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old former teacher \u2013 who reportedly served a year in prison after she was convicted of hooking up with three Jay High School students in 2007 \u2013 was cuffed again this week after failing to notify authorities that she was staying at an RV park about 45 minutes away from Jay City Hall, according to an arrest report obtained by WEAR News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MugshotApril Watson, 50, was nabbed during a \u201csex offender registry violation roundup\u201d by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff\u2019s Office on Monday. Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was recently brought to my attention April Watson stayed at Splash RV Resort located at 8500 Welcome Church Road, Milton, Florida,\u201d an investigator noted in the report \u2013 which said Watson resided at the park from May 29 to June 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWatson did not register this as a temporary address,\u201d the document read. \u201cThis information was confirmed through Splash RV Resort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convicted predators in the Sunshine State can face felony charges for failing to tell their local sheriff\u2019s office when they switch addresses, jobs, phone numbers or cars, according to CBS News 12<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff\u2019s Office conducts \u201csweeps\u201d to find such scofflaw sex offenders several times every year, the outlet reported, and said that the office declined to share how many people were caught during the latest operation or the specific charges brought against Watson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jay Town Council voted to suspend Watson with pay on Monday, but noted it had \u201climited information about the charges against Ms. Watson or any of the facts and circumstances which led to this arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Town is currently working to gather information and will make a decision on how to proceed based on a thorough review of all the facts and circumstances,\u201d Jay leadership wrote in a statement released Tuesday. \u201cAfter a review is completed, the Council will determine what additional actions are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just last month, the Council decided to delay a vote on Watson\u2019s selection for manager \u2013 despite Jay Mayor Shon Owens confirming to the Pensacola News Journal<\/a> that she was on track to fulfill the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a great deal of confidence within the community in her ability,\u201d Owens told the outlet on July 3. \u201cShe\u2019s the right person for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor seemed less positive about those plans in the wake of her arrest this week \u2013 bluntly telling WEAR News in a text message that town leadership was \u201cwaiting for more information\u201d before weighing their options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MembersThe Jay Town Council voted to suspend Watson with pay on Monday. Gregg Pachkowski\/Pensacola News Journal \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Watson, who was promoted to town operations manager in September last year, had come a long way since August 2009, when she and another female teacher at the local high school were reportedly arrested for having sexual intercourse with minors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tryst involved both educators engaging in sexual relationships with three 17-year-old male students over a four month period in 2007, when Watson was 31 years old, the Pensacola News Journal reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She pleaded no contest in 2010 and served 12 out of her 15-month prison sentence before being required to register as a sex offender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watson, who\u2019s checked in with Santa Rosa County authorities approximately 75 times in the past 15 years \u2013 including as recently as July 9 \u2013 was released from jail after making her $2,500 bond late Tuesday, WEAR News reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Watson did not respond to messages from The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida town manager candidate who was convicted of having sexual relationships with three high school boys landed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,132,27135,4030,4278],"class_list":["post-349400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-police","tag-sex-offenders","tag-teachers","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349400","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=349400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}