Former Ashtabula County coach wants statements suppressed from trial

JEFFERSON

A former Ashtabula Star Beacon sports editor and former Jefferson High School basketball coach accused of sexual misconduct involving former female basketball players has asked an Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court judge to suppress statements he purportedly gave to detectives investigating his case.

Judge Marianne Sezon of Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court scheduled a hearing Monday to discuss the motion and two others from the attorney for Donald McCormack, 51, of Jefferson, but the hearing was canceled and not yet re-set.

Ashtabula County deputies spoke with McCormack for two hours and 20 minutes at his home at the beginning of the investigation, and McCormack made comments that McCormack now wants suppressed from trial.

McCormack has also filed motions asking to dismiss the charges and to sever the case into four separate parts for the four alleged victims.

McCormack is charged with single felony counts of child endangering and gross sexual imposition and three counts of sexual battery. He also faces two misdemeanor charges of sexual imposition.

He’s accused of having sex with two girls he coached and having sexual conduct with two others. The girls were either 16 or 17 at the time, prosecutors said. The charges date back to 1991 and from 1997 to 2000. There’s no trial date set in the case.