Judge releases former Warren teacher early from prison but says he must apologize

Staff report

WARREN

Apologies are apparently the key to former Warren G. Harding High School special education teacher Eric R. Kline leaving prison early after being convicted last November of having sex with one of his students.

Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court said during a hearing Thursday that Kline “accepted responsibility” for the crime in a letter he wrote to the judge asking for early release.

The judge said he was releasing Kline from prison after seven months of his 18-month prison term, but Kline needs to write a letter of at least 250 words to both the victim and a witness in the case apologizing to both of them. The judge will get a copy of those letters.

The judge said if he is not satisfied with those letters, Kline will be returned for another hearing on a probation violation and will probably be “headed back to prison.”

Judge Rice said Kline owed them both apologies because he “called both of them liars at trial.”

Kline, 26, of Newton Falls, was in his first year as special education teacher at the school in March 2018 when he and one of his students, 16, engaged in sexual conduct in his otherwise empty classroom with the door locked.

At trial, Kline was convicted of sexual battery.

Diane Barber, assistant prosecutor, opposed Kline’s early release, saying he initiated the conduct by asking the girl to meet him in the hallway. The two then went into the empty classroom.

Barber said Kline “took advantage of a student with a learning disability and abused his position of authority” by his actions. Kline has to register as a sex offender and can never again work as a teacher.