Cody Pester

Introduction

Cody Pester is a former sixth-grade teacher and wrestling coach in Palmyra, Nebraska, who pleaded guilty in 2026 to felony third-degree sexual abuse by a school worker for a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old recent graduate of the school. The case was built by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, which arrested him on January 26, 2026, after documenting a relationship that began in May 2025 and included more than 13,000 text messages between teacher and graduate. Court documents filed in July 2026 recorded his guilty plea and conviction, and on September 14, 2026, a judge sentenced him to two years in prison. His former school district had already removed him from the classroom and from every extracurricular assignment following his arrest.

Background Information

Pester was 27 years old at the time of his sentencing. He taught sixth grade and coached wrestling at Palmyra, and it was around those athletic duties that he first came to know the young woman in the case: according to Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ben Houchin, Pester and the victim met during athletic events. The other party was 18 years old and had already graduated from Palmyra — a detail that matters legally, because the charge Pester faced exists specifically to reach school employees whose contact continues past a student’s enrollment. Public reporting on the case records little about Pester beyond his job at the school and the prosecution that followed. The sheriff’s office, through Houchin, supplied the timeline and scale of the contact that investigators documented between the two.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. His guilt was established by his own guilty plea, and the conviction is a matter of court record.

According to the details Chief Deputy Houchin shared about the investigation, the relationship between Pester and the 18-year-old Palmyra graduate began in May 2025, after the two had met during athletic events. During that period, Pester and the graduate exchanged more than 13,000 text messages — a volume investigators cited in laying out how sustained the contact was. In July 2025, the relationship turned sexual.

That step is what put Pester on the wrong side of Nebraska statute 28-316.01. The law prohibits school employees from engaging in sexual activity or contact with students who are enrolled at the school or who were enrolled within the previous 90 days. The graduate’s age of 18 did not shield Pester: even though she was an adult and no longer a current student, she fell inside that 90-day window, and Pester’s position as a school employee made the conduct a felony. Houchin said the relationship’s becoming sexual in July violated the statute on exactly that basis.

Authorities arrested Pester on January 26, 2026. The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office publicly shared details about the investigation and the arrest, and the school district acted quickly after the arrest, removing Pester from the classroom and from all extracurricular activities.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published account of the case documents no public statements from Pester and no organized public campaign around it; the documented consequences came through the school district and the courts. The district’s response — removal from the classroom and from all extracurricular activities — followed the January arrest and severed him from every role he held at the school. In the criminal case, Pester was initially charged with felony first-degree sexual abuse by a school worker. He accepted a plea deal, and court documents filed in July 2026 show that he pleaded guilty and was convicted of the reduced felony charge of third-degree sexual abuse by a school worker. 10/11 NOW reported the sentencing on September 14, 2026, closing out the case roughly eight months after his arrest.

Current Status

Pester is sentenced and headed to prison. On Monday, September 14, 2026, the court imposed a two-year prison term. According to court documents, his imprisonment was found necessary for the protection of the public because the risk is substantial that he could engage in additional criminal misconduct. The court also determined that a lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of Pester’s crime and promote disrespect for the law. Because the case ended in a plea rather than a trial, his status — a former teacher and coach with a felony conviction for sexual abuse by a school worker and a two-year sentence — is established by his own admission in court and is a matter of record.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The conviction and sentence ended Pester’s work in education. The district had already removed him from the classroom and all extracurricular duties after his January 2026 arrest, and a felony conviction for sexual abuse by a school worker forecloses any return to a Nebraska classroom or coaching staff. The two-year prison term added by the September 2026 sentencing puts him in the custody of the state, with the court explicitly finding that public protection required incarceration because of the substantial risk he would commit additional criminal misconduct otherwise. The case also illustrates the reach of statute 28-316.01: a teacher who began a relationship with a graduate who was 18 and no longer enrolled was still criminally liable, because the law’s 90-day window treats recently departed students as off-limits to the employees who taught them. From more than 13,000 texts beginning in May 2025 to a prison sentence handed down in September 2026, the arc of the case ran from a coach’s sideline acquaintance to a felony record.

Sources

• 10/11 NOW (KOLN), “Former Palmyra teacher sentenced to two years in prison in sex abuse case,” September 14, 2026. source