Lifetime TV show dance teacher who gave teen HIV gets 9 months in prison, DA says

A dance teacher who raped a 16-year-old boy, infecting him with HIV, was sentenced on Friday to nine months in prison and four years of probation.

John Conner III, 30, of Memphis, Tennessee, will also be registered on the Sex Offender Registry for life, according to WREG.

Conner will serve four years of probation once he’s been released, according to Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich’s office, WMC reported.

Conner pleaded guilty in November 2019 to “criminal exposure to HIV, statutory rape by an authority figure, and solicitation of a minor,” according to a release from Weirich’s office.

Conner was featured on Lifetime’s TV dance reality show called “Bring It,” according to CNN.

Investigators said when Conner was 26 in 2015, he met a 16-year-old through social media, according to the release. He and the minor had unprotected sex multiple times in Conner’s car and the teen joined the Infamous Dancerettes, Conner’s dance team. Investigators said they continued to send “text messages about their sexual activity and nude photos.”

Conner was diagnosed with HIV in January 2012 but didn’t tell the teen, according to the release. In August 2016, the teen told his parents he should get tested for HIV after hearing Conner was HIV positive. The teen tested positive for HIV, according to the release.