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...71536239765.txt

Witness: Interaction with coach ‘not normal’

By Matt Fritz
For The News-Dispatch
Published: Friday, July 1, 2011 5:09 PM CDT
LA PORTE — “The problem with the program is it’s not about the truth with La Porte volleyball,” said former La Porte High School volleyball player Molly Ribordy during testimony Thursday at La Porte Circuit Court.

Ribordy, 19, said coaches must have been aware that inappropriate behaviors were going on between former junior varsity volleyball coach Robert Aschcraft and one of his players during the 2007 volleyball season at La Porte High School.

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.

Ribordy said the inappropriate behavior included Ashcraft and the alleged victim’s constant close contact around practice and game time, the coach’s efforts in rubbing cream on the player’s back while her shirt was half way up before practice, and the alleged victim sitting between his legs while watching TV around the time of one tournament.

*
“It was not normal player and coach interaction,” Ribordy said.

She also noted that the coach and player came five to 10 minutes late everyday to the small gym, and were never punished for it by the program’s head coach.

She pointed out that parents also had expressed concerns to the coaches. During the previous day’s testimony, parent Damon Gasaway said he talked to head varsity volleyball coach Marybeth Lebo about the behavior he heard concerning Ashcraft, which he said resulted in her requiring all male coaches to never be alone with a female player.

Ribordy said Lebo also forbade players from texting Ashcraft. But the behavior continued. She said this left her feeling helpless.

“I had no one I could go to, there was no one I could trust,” Ribordy said.

When she was questioned by Defense Attorney Steve Snyder about why she didn’t talk to any adults running the program about the problem, she said she didn’t think it would have done any good.

“Obviously they let it go on for so long they weren’t going to do anything about it anyway.”

Ribordy’s mother Jan, who is now a member of the La Porte Community School Board, testified to seeing the alleged victim with her shirt pulled up to her neck while Ashcraft rubbed Icy Hot on her back. This happened in front of the bleachers around game time. She tipped police off about the matter in 2009.

She said she waited until her daughter was out of the program before she contacted police because she didn’t want her to be punished by the coaches there.

Another witness called by prosecutors Thursday was parent Dawn Leonard of Elkhart, whose daughter played alongside the alleged victim when she was on the Dunes volleyball club team. Ashcraft was a coach in the program, too.

She said the alleged victim was texted by Ashcraft during a trip to a volleyball tournament in Wisconsin in 2008. Leonard said the girl was driving with Leonard’s family because her mother was sick. The mother also gave them instructions not to let her daughter text. But she said the girl texted during the entire trip. When she confiscated the phone from her, Leonard said she recognized the number as Ashcraft’s. One of the texts asked the alleged victim to recall a time Ashcraft pushed her up against the wall and had intercourse with her.

The phone did not belong to the girl. Leonard said she asked the alleged victim where she got the cell phone from, and the girl told her it was from a friend. When Leonard called that phone’s number, she learned it belonged to Ashcraft’s wife.

Snyder asked her what date the message was sent. When Leonard said she didn’t know, he raised the possibility of the message being sent before the trip, when the phone would have been in Ashcraft’s wife’s possession. He also mentioned that since the phone belonged to his wife, Ashcraft might have thought he was texting her and not the alleged victim.

The trial continues today.