A Hicksville woman pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and sex abuse Wednesday, for having intercourse with a legally blind 11-year-old boy she tutored. Kathy Tuifel, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree rape and two counts of second-degree sex abuse before Judge Jeffrey Brown in Nassau County Court in Mineola.

She had faced three counts of first-degree rape and could have been sentenced 5 to 25 years on each count had she been convicted at trial. Instead, the judge said she will spend no more than six months in jail with 10 years of probation.

Tuifel was arrested in March 2002 after the boy came forward. Jury selection in the case began on Monday. The boy's family, however, had urged the prosecution to accept a plea from Tuifel, to spare the student from having to testify, prosecutor Joy Watson said.

"We felt the best interest of the child victim here was paramount and the family wished for a plea as opposed to him having to testify," she said.

Tuifel met the boy in the fall of 2001 when she worked as an aide in his sixth-grade class at Hicksville Middle School. It was in her home, in November 2001, that the first incident Tuifel pleaded guilty to occurred, with Tuifel touching the boy's genitals, Watson said. About a week later, a similar incident occurred in Tuifel's van as the two sat near a Hicksville park. In March 2002, Tuifel and the boy had intercourse in the basement of her home, Watson said. The boy told school officials and Tuifel was arrested.

Tuifel, who is out on $30,000 bail, will have to register as a sex offender, Watson said. Brown also indicated that a permanent order of protection will be issued forbidding Tuifel from having contact with the boy. Tuifel's attorney, Dennis Lemke of Mineola, had expressed concern about this, since Tuifel has two children, ages 12 and 15, who will go to the same school as the boy. Watson said it will be up to Tuifel to arrange it so that she is not "anywhere near him."

Neither relatives of the boy nor Tuifel's family was in court Wednesday. Outside the courthouse, Tuifel declined to comment but Lemke said the plea was "best for everybody" and that the possibility of a 5-to-25 year sentence had been "too much to bear for her."

"She didn't want to put anyone through this, including the alleged victim," he said.

Tuifel is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 15.