Greene County Circuit Court Judge Calvin R. Holden today sentenced former Parkview High School Coach Ronnie White to participate in a four-month treatment program for sexual offenders.
If White, who coached at Parkview from 1986 to 1995, makes it through that without any problems, he is home free- no prison time. If he does not receive a passing grade, he will spend seven years behind bars.
White, 69, pleaded guilty in May to a count of deviate sexual assault after admitting to having sex in a back room at the gymnasium with the manager on his basketball team for two years, when she was 14 and 15 years old. Originally, White was charged with three counts.
The assaults took place around 25 years ago when White was in his mid-40s.
The charge against White was detailed in the probable cause affidavit from Detective Chelsea Taylor:
The Springfield Police Department had received the report from an outside agency regarding an adult female who wanted to report sexual abuse that occurred when she was a student at Parkview High School in 1995.
In the report, K. L. Zaimis documented that R. C. disclosed that when she was approximately 14 years old her gym teacher had sexually assaulted her. R. C. identified the teacher as Ron White. R. C. stated that White was the basketball coach for Parkview and she would assist the team by being a team manager.
R. C. told Zaimis that White would coerce her into letting him perform sexual acts on her approximately one time a week for two years.R. C. told Zaimis that she was not sure of any of the exact dates or how many times the acts occurred total.
R. C. told Zaimis that White started out by kissing her, which later led to him fondling her and progressed into "worse acts" each time. R. C. told Zaimis that on several occasions White digitally penetrated her and on several other occasions he would put his penis in her mouth. R. C. recalled that
White could never get an erection on any of the occasions where he assaulted her and therefore never had "full intercourse' with her.
R. C. went on to tell Zaimis of an incident that occurred on a snow day. White went to R. C.'s house and took her into the bathroom, removed her clothes and attempted to have sex with her. R. C. stated White could not get an erection, so he fondled her for a while and then left.
R. C. told Zaimis of another occasion where another teacher R. C. only knew as Coach Crawford walked into the gym and saw R. C. standing on a chair with White's head between her legs.R. C. stated Crawford left promptly and did not say or report anything. R. C. stated she saw Crawford one time after that and he refused to speak to her.
I contacted R. C. via telephone in order to clarify details of the original report. R. C. advised that these incidents occurred while she was a freshman and sophomore at Parkview High School, which was determined to be her 1993-93 and 1993-94 school years.
As I spoke to R. C. further, she advised that when White digitally penetrated her it would be in her vagina.
I spoke to R. C. further about the incident that occurred in her residence. R. C. advised that she lived at (address omitted) in Springfield at that time. I went on to ask her what she meant by White fondling her and and she stated that he had touched her breasts with his hands on bare skin, kissed her and digitally penetrated her vagina without her wearing any clothing.
Next, I spoke to R. C. about the incident nivolving Coach Crawford. R. C. advised that during that incident White was performing oral sex on her.
On 2-26-2015, a pre-textual telephone call was made between R. C. and White. The pre-textual telephone call was completed by an outside agency. Upon receiving a copy of the recorded conversations between R. C. and White, I obtained the following information.
During the first conversation with R. C. and White, a male voice identified himself as being White. R. C. identified herself to White and told him the reason she was calling him was because she wanted to speak to him about things that had happened between them in high school, which White replied, "Uh huh."
R. C. told White that she was sure he remembered when he would touch her, kiss her and "things like that."
White stated, "As you know...I hope you know, I'm very apologetic about it. I did the wrong thing. I think we both did the wrong thing and I'm sorry for all I have done."
R. C. told White she looked up to him. R. C. went on to say that she felt like White did things that were inappropriate. R. C. told White she needed him to apologize for attempting to have sex with her and all the times he had taken her into the back room and touched her.
R. C. told White she did not understand why White felt his actions were okay. White told R. C. "It was just a mistake." White went on to say that he had a weak moment and he guessed he could not control himself. R. C. asked White if he remembered those times and White responded, "I'm very sorry."
Next, R. C. questioned White about the time when Coach Crawford saw. White told R. C., "I just remember times. I don't remember exactly everything, no." R. C. told White that she remembered being the manager of the basketball team and that she would be filming practice and White would put his genitals on her shoulder or they would go into the back room. White asked R. C. why they were discussing things like that on the phone. It should be noted that later, in a different telephone conversation, R. C. and White speak further about Coach Crawford.
As White and R. C. continued to talk further, R. C. told White that the thing she had the hardest time getting over was when he had come over to her house. White asked R. C. if he could meet her somewhere so they could talk in person. R. C. told White she felt uncomfortable meeting him in person and that she was not trying to start up a friendship or continue a relationship with White.
White told R. C. that he was unable to talk at that time and requested she call him back in the morning, which R. C. agreed.
A short time later, White called R. C. back on her cell phone. As White and R. C. continued to talk, White told R.C., "We both remember what all happened back then...it just kind of bothered me that you were being so specific about everything." White then told R. C. that it kind of scared him.
White went on to say, "We all do things in life that we wish we hadn't done. Obviously, I feel that way. I have felt terrible, too, ever since the day we talked, when you came to me that one day and wanted to talk."
R. C. asked White what it was about her that he liked so much and why he picked her. White told R. C., "To be honest with you, I really don't know. I just reacted that day to you and I did something goofy and I just didn't know what to expect and I guess when you didn't say anything about it why I assumed maybe we could get to know each other better and like I said it was totally a screwup. That's all it was." It should be noted that White began laughing after he made that statement.
White went on to tell R. C., "The more we went, the more we enjoyed what we were doing, I guess. That's it. That's kind of all it was to me. I made a mistake. R. C. reiterated to White that she was only 14 or 15 years old and he was almost old enough to be her parent.
R. C. questioned White by asking him why he would go to her house to try and have sex with her, why he put his penis in her mouth, or why things did not change after Coach Crawford caught them. White asked R. C. why she was asking these questions and did not deny any of the actions.
White and R. C. continued to speak further when R. C. told White that she never got his perspective on things because it was something they never really talked about.
White stated, "I think it was simply a reaction and a terrible one on my part." White went on to say, "I guess we both made mistakes and I just (chuckling) I really messed up, ya know."
|White went on to tell R. C., "I'm glad we didn't have intercourse, or any kind of sex." White went on to tell R. C. that they had gotten "wrapped up in each other" that whole year. R. C. told White the only reason they didn't have sexual intercourse was because he couldn't get an erection.
R. C. told White that she was not trying to be rude, but then stated, "Let's be honest, you wanted to. You tried more than once."
White told R. C., "Well, I agree. I had a problem with that (chuckling). I had a problem with it for quite some time. That's probably why things happened like they did. I don't know."
R. C. then told White that she wanted to speak to him further about the incident involving Crawford. R. C. told White that she trusted Crawford, too, and asked White if he had ever talked to him about what he saw. White told R. C. that he left the room after he was there and went back into the office.White went on to say that he didn't know what to say to Crawford, but that Crawford told White, "just let it go, Ron," and that "I (Crawford) didn't see a thing." Crawford then told White that he wasn't going to talk about it any more.
As the conversation continued, White went on to tell R. C., "I'm just so sorry for what happened and like I said I just thank God that we didn't mess up all the way and were able to..." White told R. C., "You say it was 'cause of an erection...I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That's just what it was."
R. C. asked White, "You just couldn't bring yourself to do it?"
White replied, "I just couldn't bring myself to go that far. I wasn't going to do it, no matter what."
White went on to tell R. C. that he hoped she did not think he was "that kind of person either," and stated, "That's the one and only and I'm just ashamed ot if to tell you the truth and not ashamed of you. I'm just ashamed of what I did, you know of what we did." White then told R. C., "There is nothing wrong with you. You did everything you were supposed to and then...and more (chuckles) I'm just so sorry it went to the point it did. I'm just thankful we didn't go all the way with it."
R. C. then asked White what "us" meant to him. She asked him if it was a relationship for him because to her she looked at him like a mentor and it became something that she didn't understand.
White stated, "I know, I know, I know...umm." R. C. then asked if she was a girlfriend. White stated, "I guess you would call it like a fling. I don't know."
R. C. stated, " A fling!"
White replied, "A fling You know, where we...I just thought the world of you and I enjoyed you and I liked being around ya and knowing all the time, R. C., knowing all the time that we couldn't do anything because..."
R. C. asked, "Because why?" and he stated, "because I thought, well, I have got a family and I just thought ya know that we couldn't make it. It wasn't something that could develop into anything. It couldn't be lifelong and I guess, I guess that's why I'm saying fling."
On 3-24-2015, Robert Crawford arrived at the Springfield Police Department to speak to me about this incident. During our conversation, I advised him that I knew he knew there was a relationship between R. C. and White, which Crawford did not deny. I told Crawford that what he knew had probably weighed on him for a long time and he responded, "Um, huh."
I told Crawford that I wanted to make the situation right for R. C. and he said, "OK, here's what I remember. This is the only thing that I could tell you that would say that they had a relationship." Crawford went on say that it was before practice. He began to look for White because he had a question. There was "kind of an office off of the lobby at Parkview." Crawford believed White had gone back into the office to look at film."
Crawford stated, "This is what I remember.Crawford went on say that he went back, opened the door, the tape was on and it was dark.Crawford stated that he saw "maybe grabbing at their pants or something."
Crawford then made a "beeline" and went back out of the office. White came out afterwards and said something to Crawford that Crawford did not exactly remember, but Crawford told White that he "was washing my hands of it."
Crawford believed White had told him he didn't want him to say anything. Crawford stated that he thought what he did "the very next day" was that he wrote down what he saw and took it to a counselor. Crawford stated he had written down in a note because to him it was "kind of serious." Crawford was unsure of what happened to the information after he provided the note to the counselor.
I clarified with Crawford what he meant when he stated he had seen them "grabbing" their pants. Crawford stated he thought he seen them pull them up or down. I asked Crawford if he had seen both of them grabbing at their pants. Crawford went on to say that it happened a long time ago. Crawford stated that when he saw "that" he was unsure if White was "scuffling" to get his pants up or if it was R. C., but he had seen enough to know that it "wasn't right." Crawford went on to state that he did not see them actually engaging in anything and that he didn't know if they were "starting to maybe," or "just getting done."
Prior to concluding my interview with Crawford, I spoke to him about the area where he observed R. C. and White together. Crawford stated the distance between, him, White, and R. C. was approximately the length of the Springfield Police Department's interview room, which is approximately eight to 10 feet wide.
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