STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A teacher and coach accused of
trying to thwart an investigation into the rape of a 16-year-old girl in
eastern Ohio will have the charge dismissed in exchange for community
service at a domestic violence shelter, Ohio Attorney General Mike
DeWine announced Friday.
Seth Fluharty was charged last year with a
single misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect
involving the rape of the girl by two Steubenville High School football
players in 2012.
The charge will be dismissed once Fluharty
completes 20 community service hours at a domestic violence shelter and
attends anti-sexual violence training at Steubenville city schools,
DeWine said.
"This resolution acknowledges how very important it is to report child abuse and neglect,"
DeWine said in a statement.
Fluharty,
an elementary school principal and conditioning coach for wrestlers,
entered a not guilty plea to the charge last year. His attorney declined
to comment Friday.
Fluharty was one of six people charged last
year by a grand jury investigating whether other laws were broken in the
case of a West Virginia girl who was raped after an alcohol-fueled
house party in August 2012.
Three of those cases have now been resolved.
In
February, a former school worker pleaded guilty to stealing computer
equipment in a case that arose from the grand jury investigation but
wasn’t related to the girl’s rape.
In January, DeWine announced
charges would be dropped against a Steubenville elementary school
principal official in exchange for community service related to rape
awareness. The principal was accused of failing to report rumors of a
teenage sex and drinking party in April 2012 unrelated to the later
rape.
Among the remaining defendants is Steubenville
superintendent Mike McVey, who has pleaded not guilty to charges
including obstructing justice and tampering with evidence and a
misdemeanor charge alleging he made a false statement in April 2012.
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