Tuesday, June 28th, 2022
Former coach sentenced for sexual messages to girl, 14
By Leslie Gartrell
WAPAKONETA - Former New Knoxville basketball coach Cole Fischbach was sentenced to more than five months in jail with work release after he was found guilty on two charges related to sending sexually explicit messages to a 14-year-old student.
Fischbach, 27, was sentenced by Auglaize County Common Pleas Court Judge Frederick Pepple to 180 days in the Auglaize County Correctional Center for each first-degree misdemeanor charge of disseminating material harmful to juveniles.
Pepple granted him work release and suspended 180 days of his sentence on condition Fischbach not violate any law that results in or has the potential of time in jail or prison. He was granted five days credit for time served, making his sentence 175 days.
Fischbach also was sentenced to five years of supervised parole and ordered not to communicate with minors electronically via the internet or any other device other than his family. He also cannot use Snapchat or any other social media app where posts and messages can disappear.
He cannot be allowed in a vehicle with minors, and Pepple also ordered him to not have contact with the victim or her family, including posting about the victim or her family on social media.
Fischbach during his May trial was found not guilty on two third-degree misdemeanor counts of sexual imposition, one third-degree felony count of tampering with evidence and two fifth-degree felony counts of disseminating material harmful to juveniles.
He had been accused of reportedly kissing, groping and sending sexually explicit messages to a 14-year-old female student last June and later deleting the evidence.
The victim's mother, reading from an impact statement to the court at Monday's sentencing, said Fischbach's actions have permanently changed her daughter's life and said her daughter has been bullied because of it.
Pepple said his sentencing was based on Fischbach's lack of remorse, his character and lying to the pre-sentencing investigator.
The New Knoxville Board of Education last July accepted Fischbach's resignation after only one season as coach of the high school boys basketball team. Fischbach reportedly resigned for personal reasons, with no further information given by the school board at the time.
