Posted on 04/15/2006 9:11:30 AM PDT by connectthedots
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 By STEPHANIE RICE, Columbian staff writer
The former head volleyball coach at Prairie High School admitted Tuesday in Superior Court that he had sex with one of his players.
Tommy Lee Russell Jr. was sentenced to 90 days in the Clark County Jail.
Russell, 31, pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor in the second degree, a gross misdemeanor. He has resigned his coaching and teaching positions with the school and surrendered his teaching certificate, said Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kim Farr.
Russell, who is married and has a 2-year-old son, will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Farr said following the hearing that Russell was not charged with a felony because Farr wanted a quick resolution to the case for the victim, a high school senior.
In a rare move, Russell entered his plea and was sentenced on the very same day the charge was filed. Typically, such a case would take at least a year to resolve.
Defense attorney Tom Phelan objected to The Columbian photographing his client, but Judge Robert Lewis reminded Phelan that court proceedings are public and Russell had no right to privacy.
The victim, in her remarks to Lewis, said she's angry and embarrassed, but does not consider herself a victim.
"In no way did Tom Russell manipulate me," she said, her hands shaking.
She's 17, she told Lewis.
"I'm fully capable of distinguishing from right and wrong."
The situation came to the attention of law enforcement after the victim's parents overheard a conversation about Russell.
The victim's mother said her daughter's self-esteem has been shattered.
"She feels she's somehow to blame," the mother said.
Lewis, after thanking the victim for her statement, told her to continue with counseling.
'A grave error'
When it was Russell's turn to talk, the former coach said he made a "grave error."
"I got caught up in the moment," Russell said.
When he took the head coaching position in May, he said his No. 1 goal was to make his 12 players believe in themselves and see what they could achieve as a team.
Instead, "I committed adultery and a crime," Russell said.
Lewis ripped Russell for violating his position of trust as a coach. "It makes (other parents) think, 'If he did it, is it happening with my daughter or my son?'" Lewis said.
And it doesn't matter whether the girl thinks of herself as a victim or not, Lewis told Russell.
"There's no doubt about it, you are a criminal."
It may be rare to have all this resolved in one day, but it may have been a done deal because one of the girls on the team is a daughter of a Clark County Superior Court Judge.
I had to read half the story in order to find out the sexual preference of Coach.
"I got caught up in the moment"
He got something caught allright.
90 days - with good time, etc. he'll be out in a couple weeks or so. Yep, sounds like the Judge doesn't want this to somehow taint his daughter's college applications.
When I was in HS, many years ago, the soccer coach, who also taught french, was having a rather lurid affair with one of his students. It went on for quite a while before she finally broke it off. To this day I don't know how he didn't get his butt canned for it and go to Jail. She was under 18 the entire duration of the affair.
I have no idea who the player was. I specifically do not know if it was the judge's daughter.
Russell was not charged with a felony because Farr extended "professional courtesy" to a fellow public employee.
No, clearly she isn't.
The victim's mother said her daughter's self-esteem has been shattered. "She feels she's somehow to blame," the mother said.
Sounds to me like the mother is even less mature than her daughter. At least the daughter has some sense of responsibility for her role in the incident. The mother's trying to cast her as a helpless, innocent victim and keep her from being held accountable. No wonder the daughter got into trouble.
As for the coach, what a stupid, stupid thing to do. He's ruined his career, very likely his marraige, and possibly the rest of his life.
High school kids, even junior high kids, will sometimes develop crushes on teachers, coaches, any authority figure within the school environment that they admire. That's always been the case. It hasn't always been the case that those in a position of authority over minors are so lacking in basic morality that we hear, daily, of yet another instance of statutory rape or child sexual abuse by teachers, coaches, etcetera. I don't doubt for one second that this girl willingly entered into a sexual relationship with her coach. That has nothing to do with the fact that there was a crime committed.
[Lewis ripped Russell for violating his position of trust as a coach.]
This is what is so pathetic about the coaches and teachers who commit these type crimes, even if the student is 17 or even 18 years of age.
Parents should not have to worry about the very people they entrust their children to to take advantage of that trust.
A hippie-type sociology teacher was dating a girl in our class. After graduation, they both moved to a small state college town were they both enrolled, like me.
Even went over to their apartment a couple of times to drink beer with them and others from my HS.
Love your tagline!!
If you read the entire article, it was clear that the 'victim' did not want the guy to be prosecuted at all. Getting a felony conviction when the 'victim' didn't think she was a victim would be difficult.
Doesn't matter if it was the Judge's daughter or not. The school will be tainted, especially the team and the girl's friends.
Thanks, we're both prune pickers too. :-)
Not as a high school student with one of her teachers.
I don't think he was a teacher at the school.
This is probably more common than we'd like to think.
No, he was a teacher and a coach at Prairie High School.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.