Steubenville football coach pleads no contest in rape fallout
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - A volunteer football coach whose house was the scene of an underage drinking party that preceded the rape of a girl by two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, pleaded no contest to two charges on Tuesday, the Ohio attorney general's office said.
Defendant Matt Belardine entered no contest pleas in a Jefferson County court to one count of making a false statement and one count of enabling underage drinking. Charges of obstructing official business and contributing to the delinquency of a child were dismissed.
In March 2013, a judge convicted Ma'Lik Richmond and fellow Steubenville High School student athlete Trent Mays in the August 2012 rape of a 16-year-old girl. Mays was also convicted of using his phone to take a picture of the girl naked.
Richmond and Mays were sentenced to the state's juvenile detention system Richmond was released in January, WTOV-TV reported.
Belardine was one of six people charged last year by a grand jury investigating whether other laws were broken in connection with the rape that occurred after an alcohol-fueled house party. With Belardine's plea, four of those cases have been resolved.
On April 11, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that a teacher and coach charged with a single misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect involving the rape will have the charge dismissed in exchange for community service at a domestic violence shelter.
In February, a former school worker pleaded guilty to stealing computer equipment in a case that arose from the grand jury investigation but was not 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.
A pre-trial hearing was scheduled Tuesday afternoon for William Rhinaman, the Steubenville schools' former technology director, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of evidence tampering, obstructing justice, obstructing official business and perjury.
Steubenville superintendent Mike McVey 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. He has a motion hearing scheduled for May 5.