Ashtabula, OH Sports Editor arrested

Vindy's site not coming up this AM for me, here's from the Star Beacon.

McCormack takes plea deal, facing up to 18 months in jail

Yes, and it's getting more and more common.

 

I don't know. That may have been a real factor, but I would have pressed for a trial anyway just because of what I know about the guy. Of course, I'm not a legal scholar and I'm a vindictive SOB. But I've been told the prosecutor doesn't have a great trial record and may not have wanted to risk an L in such a high-profile case, hence the plea deal in which both sides got something. I'm of the opinion that innocent men don't take plea deals, so there is that. But six months?

To your other point, there were three other victims involved in the case and 100 or so people were interviewed by investigators. Also, the case began because of an inappropriate text McCormack sent to one of his players in 2014, so the behavior was not limited to the 1990s and early 2000s, even if that's when the incidents he was convicted on happened. This behavior goes back to the mid-1980s and I don't think it ever really stopped until he was arrested. If there were five victims who came forward, there were more who did not for whatever reason.

The civil trial will be interesting, because the two victims who filed suit are also suing the school district, the newspaper and officials from both entities. They're alleging that people involved knew of McCormack's "issues" and kept him in their employ — and around potential victims — anyway.

In fact, the older of the two victims involved in the suit (the one who transferred in from a nearby district) claims that she went to school officials when she was still at Jefferson and told them what had happened and that their reaction was to put McCormack on hiatus from coaching and into counseling until she graduated. Then he was re-hired for coaching jobs at some point after she was gone.

If that's true and can be proved, wow.

 

Don't you just love the last paragraph from the Star Beacon story ...


"McCormack recently filed suit against Jefferson Area Local School District claiming he is entitled to have the district pay for his defense in the civil suit, as well as be indemnified by the district "for any and all judgments, costs and claimed compensatory damages" in the event judgment is rendered against him in the civil action, according to the complaint."


So, this asshole wants the school to pay for his defense and any and all civil judgments against him since he was employed by school. That's right, he wants you --- Ohio citizens and state tax payers --- to foot the bill for a being a felonious jackass pedophile. Never mind he was also employed by the newspaper, too. Neither of which are responsible for him wanting to touch little girls.

I hate sick motherfuckers.

 

Was the player working at the paper?

But how, under any circumstances, do you keep a sports reporter/editor who you know is sleeping with high school athletes?

 

It's a little bit tough to say cause these kinds of cases have a lot of variables that affect the outcome and the sentencing. And some states are much more harsh than others on sex offenses.

From what little I've read about the case, I think I could live with a reduction for a first offender from multiple felonies to one single felony conviction with six months, a significant probationary period and sex offender registration.

Proving sex assaults from more than 10 years ago is incredibly difficult, especially if there was no forensic evidence of any kind. He said, she said cases are difficult when they're fresh in everyone's memories. Add 10 to 15 years of memories drifting a bit and inconsistencies creep in that let the defense take advantage to sow doubt. You run a real risk of re-traumatizing your victims by putting them on the stand to publicly relive what happened and then have a jury find reasonable doubt.

What gives me pause about the plea agreement is that it's only one felony but there were three victims. I could live with the terms of the punishment, but would have pushed for three felony convictions combined for sentencing. I'd also need the victims to be OK with the agreement.

 

I get your position. I used to share it. But it is, sadly, fairly common for people to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit.

 

That's probably true in some cases. Just not this one. Trust me on this.

 

My comment on that wasn't a reference to this particular case. I just wanted to point out that it is somewhat common for people to plead guilty to crimes they didn't commit.

Defendants will often be given a plea offer that either lets them get out of jail, where they've been sitting for some time awaiting trial, or allow them to avoid a harsh maximum sentence for the crimes they're facing. Many will go ahead and take the certainty of the plea over the uncertainty of demanding trial, even if they didn't commit the particular crime they are accused of. Everyone who works in the criminal justice system is aware that it happens.

 

There are only nine schools in Ashtabula County in extreme northeastern Ohio. The sports department at the time rarely ventured west or south to neighboring counties. As SE, I'm sure he delegated stuff to the other full-time sports staff member and made use of stringers. He also was able to do both jobs because he operated with almost no supervision from the paper's editor and publisher. He made his schedule, came to work when he wanted to and left when he wanted to. That's a big reason why the editor and publisher lost their jobs in the wake of his arrest and indictment.

Objectively? Ha! Yes, Jefferson was one of the main schools in the coverage area. The running joke was that when his school's teams won, the stories and pics were plastered everywhere. When they lost, they were briefed a lot. His treatment of certain schools when it came to coverage was in question long before the sex charges.

 

I think I've said this before on here, but ... looking back, I'm glad I didn't get the job when I applied for it. I was one of the finalists, along with @amraeder and -- IIRC -- two or three others. It's been a while; memory's hazy from that time.

Talking with amraeder after all this stuff started pouring out, neither one of us got an inkling that anything like this was going on when we went through the interview process. From the phone/email conversations we had, Don was a good guy and a good SE. I don't think either one of us knew about him coaching on the side, either, or at least I didn't until after he was arrested.

So it was shocking to hear he had been busted for this, and it's more shocking now that I've read more into the case.