A fired private-school teacher and coach was sentenced Thursday to four months in jail for sexually abusing a student over an 18-month period in a plea deal that requires her to testify against her former boss, who is accused of covering up the relationship.
Kelly Ann O’Rourke, 41, a former volleyball coach at Mount St. Mary Academy, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault. She will serve a 15-year suspended sentence, pay a $5,000 fine and be required to register as a sex offender.
O’Rourke, who will move out of state, was ordered to have no contact - even through a third party - with the victim, who did not attend the hearing before Circuit Judge Barry Sims.
The felony sexual assault charge carries a maximum of 30 years in prison, but senior deputy prosecutor Terry Raney said the victim did not want O’Rourke to spend much time incarcerated.
“The only reason we did not negotiate for penitentiary time is at the insistence of the victim,” Raney said.
The victim was “sexually abused through penetration” from January 2010 until she graduated in May 2011, the prosecutor said. The victim, who is now 19, was 16 when the abuse began and 17 when she graduated.
Her parents and school Principal Dianne Wolfe attended the proceedings. Wolfe, whose call to authorities led to the criminal charges, declined to comment Thursday, but the Catholic girls school released a statement from its president saying that the protection of students is its first priority.
“Our prayers go out to all involved in this matter,” the three-sentence news release from Karen Flake said.“Mount St. Mary Academy has complied fully with the police investigation regarding the actions of the former staff member. We assure all in the community that the safety and protection of the young women entrusted to the school’s care is of paramount importance.”
O’Rourke was handcuffed and taken into custody after the hearing to immediately begin serving her jail sentence. Her attorney, Jack Lassiter, declined to comment.
O’Rourke, a graduate of the school, will have to testify about what she did at the future trial of her co-defendant, Kathy Gene Griffin, the school’s former athletic director. The description of the abuse is expected to be abbreviated, just enough to satisfy the legal requirement that prosecutors must provide evidence of abuse.
Griffin, 55, is charged with misdemeanor failure to report child abuse by a mandated reporter. She faces up to a year in jail.
Griffin denies any wrongdoing, arguing through her attorney Jeff Rosenzweig that she was not obligated under the law to report anything because the victim was 18 years old by the time Griffin learned what was going on. Griffin has further argued that since she eventually did report the allegations to the proper authorities, she has satisfied any legal obligationshe might have.
Prosecutors counter that Griffin’s report came too late and that she had a duty under the law to report what she had learned immediately, regardless of the age of the victim. The law requires reporting when there is a “reasonable cause to suspect” abuse, prosecutors have said. In court, prosecutors have said Griffin did not give authorities her name when she made her report and did not mention sexual abuse.
Griffin knew something improper was going on between O’Rourke and the victim for at least 16 days before Griffin told authorities, but she might have known or at least had a reason to suspect impropriety for as long as a year, claim prosecutors, who say Griffin didn’t report because she was trying to protect O’Rourke because they had been close friends.
According to court files, the victim told her parents about O’Rourke on Feb. 24 while also telling O’Rourke she had informed her parents. O’Rourke made repeated efforts to contact the victim’s parents and in a meeting two days later - recorded by the victim’s father - apologized to him and his wife and admitted to the sexual contact.
Griffin contacted the victim’s parents that same day, Feb. 26, and persuaded them not to tell anyone “for the good of the school,” according to an arrest affidavit.
Twelve days later, on March 9, the victim’s father told Griffin that the authorities were about to be notified. Griffin made her report on March 11 and she told Wolfe the next day, saying that she had not reported the sexual abuse for two weeks “for the good of the school,” the affidavit states.
O’Rourke and Griff in were fired on March 14, the same day Wolfe notified police.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 01/26/2013