Replies

[lighter]

http://nwitimes.com/news/breaking/article_...1cc4c03286.html

Former LaPorte coach turns himself over to authorities
By Christine Kraly and Marisa Kwiatkowski Times Staff Writers | Posted: Friday, December 18, 2009 12:05 am | (7) Comments

LAPORTE | A former LaPorte High School assistant girls volleyball coach was charged Thursday with multiple felonies for an alleged sexual relationship with a minor, an Indiana State Police spokeswoman confirmed.

And a Times investigation shows the charges could be a second black mark for LaPorte High School's volleyball team in the last two years.

Robert Ashcraft, 45, faces two felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and one felony count of child seduction, state police Sgt. Ann Wojas said.

The LaPorte resident turned himself in about 6:30 p.m. Thursday at LaPorte County Jail, Wojas said.

Wojas was unable to provide details of Ashcraft's charges Thursday, including when the alleged incidents occurred and whether they took place at LaPorte High School, where Ashcraft had been an assistant junior varsity coach. Wojas did report that the victim was younger than 16 years old at the time of the alleged incidents and that Ashcraft was not involved at the school other than in his coaching role.

LaPorte Community School Corp. officials announced Ashcraft's resignation at a district meeting Nov. 11, 2008.

Jim Dermody, the school corporation's assistant superintendent, said Thursday evening that he was unaware of Ashcraft's charges and felt it would be inappropriate to comment.

Other school and athletics officials contacted by The Times did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In an unrelated case in March, the U.S. Department of Education found that the LaPorte school corporation unlawfully retaliated against a student trainer who reported seeing what he believed was a professional trainer fondling a female volleyball player in 2007.

The federal agency's Office for Civil Rights found the corporation violated Title IX when it stripped then-senior Dan Vermette of his student trainer duties after he reported the 2007 incident.

Vermette -- who is now a computer specialist in the U.S. Marine Corps -- reported the alleged groping to both the school corporation and an outside employer that helped fund the professional trainer's salary, according to the Office for Civil Rights decision.

A school official told Vermette that reporting the incident to that outside employer was "incredibly inappropriate," federal records state.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...5d261966224.txt

Woman: ‘I couldn’t hide it anymore’

By Matt Fritz
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, July 2, 2011 5:08 PM CDT
La PORTE — “Everything came to the point where I couldn’t hide it anymore,” said the alleged victim of former La Porte High School volleyball coach Robert Ashcraft.

She spoke Friday during the third day of Ashcraft’s criminal trial in La Porte Circuit Court.

The trial is concerned with the times between February 2008 and Oct. 28, 2008, when the former coach allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with an underage former player on his La Porte High School junior varsity volleyball team.

Ashcraft, 46, is facing four felony charges, including two charges of Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor under the age of 16, one charge of Class C felony sexual misconduct and one charge of Class D sexual misconduct with a minor over the age of 16.

*
The alleged victim, now 19, said she wasn’t coerced, trapped, cornered or fed answers by investigators when she was taken to the La Porte Police station in November 2009 and confessed to what had allegedly happened to her. She was 17 at the time of the confession.

When the prosecution asked her to recount that day, she said her father picked her up from work and told her she had to come with him. She said she notified Ashcraft via cell phone that something was wrong, and alleged that he told her not to tell the police anything.

She had been taken to the police station before and denied a relationship with Ashcraft.

“I knew if I said anything that everything I’ve known and put faith in would fall apart,” she explained.

But this time was different. When her father took her to the station, she decided not to hide her alleged relationship with her former volleyball coach any longer, even though she said she was still in love with him.

She described how Ashcraft fondled her in the school’s storage closet, his coach’s office, his pickup truck and the volleyball team’s training room during 2008.

She told jurors she had sex with the suspect about 25 times over the course of their relationship.

The prosecution focused on five alleged instances of sex in 2008, which reportedly happened in the last week of May, the first week of June, the second and third weeks of July, and a later date in August. On these occasions, the alleged victim said she left her home, telling her family she was going for a jog, but instead went to meet Aschcraft in his truck and later engaged in sexual acts with him.

He allegedly didn’t use a condom.

“Sad. Angry. Upset.”

Those were the words she used to describe her feelings after the interview when she realized all the dreams she said she talked about with Ashcraft would not come true.

This included his alleged intentions of following her to college, having children with her and starting a life together where he would leave his wife and support her instead.

She said they even had a name for their first child: Isabella.

The alleged victim said she originally got to know the suspect when he coached her volleyball team at the Dunes Volleyball Club in January 2007. She said her mother became sick during this time so Aschcraft became her primary ride to practice. In May 2007, when she was 14 years old, Ashcraft allegedly sent her a text message saying he loved her. A week later she reciprocated.

“It made me feel really happy,” she said. “No one [but family members] ever said they loved me.”

When he later became her coach on the La Porte junior varsity volleyball team, she gave him the combination to her locker so he could leave her messages and snacks, she said.

The trial will continue Tuesday at 8 a.m.