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Ex-coach, editor arraigned on sex charges involving students
By Ed Runyan
JEFFERSON
An inappropriate text message from former Jefferson High School girls basketball and softball coach Don McCormack to one of the girls he coached made her father angry enough to confront McCormack and tell a sheriff’s deputy, but the text message ultimately was not deemed criminal.
The investigation that ensued, however, brought McCormack to Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to five felony charges and two misdemeanors that accuse him of having sex with two other girls he coached and having sexual contact with two others. The girls were 16 to 17 years old. McCormack, of Jefferson, remains free on bond.
The felony charges are single counts of child endangering and gross sexual imposition and three counts of sexual battery. The misdemeanor charges are sexual imposition.
The charges date back to 1991, when McCormack, 51, was a young sports writer for the Ashtabula Star Beacon who also served as an assistant to Jefferson head girls basketball coach Rodney Holmes.
Holmes, 55, who retired last year from his teaching position in the district, is charged with two misdemeanor offenses for allegedly failing to report what he knew about McCormack’s alleged offenses. He has not yet had a court hearing but is on leave from his coaching position. McCormack surrendered his state coaching certificate last summer during the investigation.
McCormack could get more than 10 years in prison if convicted. Holmes could get up to a year.
Rodney Truckey, the father who intercepted the text message, said outside of court Tuesday he’s still angry — not just because McCormack is accused of using his coaching position to abuse children, but because it took so long for it to be uncovered.
He said Holmes was McCormack’s “best friend,” and he believes McCormack, who became the Star Beacon’s sports editor in 1998, had other close friends who covered up his purported offenses.
“It appears the community turned a blind eye to this for 20-some years,” Truckey said. “The people knew about this and did nothing.”
McCormack’s indictment alleges offenses in 1999 and 2000, when he’s accused of making “repeated sexual advances” to a girl 16 to 17 years old, having sex with her two times and having sexual contact with her another time.
That girl, now 31, has experienced “significant psychological trauma” as a result of McCormack’s actions, said Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci.
McCormack recruited the girl from another school district to play basketball and attend Jefferson schools, Iarocci said in a news release from Dec. 18, the day after McCormack and Holmes were indicted.
The girl was provided free rent at one of McCormack’s relatives’ vacant apartments, cash, other financial assistance and gifts during her junior year “for the purpose of developing a sexual relationship with the child at the time,” Iarocci said.
McCormack’s sexual misconduct involving the girl was reported to Holmes, Iarocci said. “Holmes failed to report such misconduct to authorities as required by law. Holmes was also allegedly present and observed other inappropriate conduct of McCormack towards players, yet failed to report such conduct to authorities,” the prosecutor alleged.
Another felony charge accuses McCormack of having sex with another 17-year-old player in 1991 or 1992.
“I’ve known Mr. McCormack and Mr. Holmes. I’m outraged. The community is outraged,” Iarocci said.
McCormack’s felony offenses are alleged to have occurred in Jefferson, a village of about 3,000 people about 40 miles north of Warren that serves as the seat of government for Ashtabula County. Jefferson High School is in the village, but some of its students live outside the village.
McCormack is charged with “touching” offenses involving two other 16- or 17-year-old girls from 1997 to 2000 in Conneaut and Ashtabula, which are north of Jefferson.
Jefferson Police Chief Dave Wassie said the investigation was handled by the sheriff’s office, with later help from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and FBI because the text-message allegations were outside of his department’s jurisdiction — at the student’s home outside the village.
The investigation may have uncovered illegal conduct within the village, Wassie said, but by then the matter was out of his hands.
Wassie and longtime Sheriff William R. Johnson both said their departments were never advised before this summer that anyone suspected McCormack was having inappropriate relationships with players.
Wassie, who has been the department’s chief investigator for 15 years and has worked there for 21 years, said he was “kind of shocked” to learn that students had alleged misconduct by McCormack.
He said McCormack was well liked and “presented himself well as a coach.” He said “everyone” knew who he was because of his coaching positions and public persona as editor and columnist with the newspaper. The newspaper fired him in August, after he was first charged.
McCormack first became an assistant coach with the girls basketball team in 1986, one year after Holmes was named head coach. Holmes has a high winning percentage and more than 400 wins in his career. McCormack also has coached girls softball at the school, including the last two seasons as head coach.
School officials have said that they were unaware of any accusations against McCormack. “We’ve never had any complaints until June,” Superintendent John Montanaro told The Vindicator in September.