An ex-wrestling coach from an Arizona high school has been sentenced to serve over a month in jail after he was convicted of "sexting" a teenage girl. The Superior Court judge who ruled on the matter also sentenced the man to 15 years supervised probation. This man's sentence was relatively minor due to the fact that he never actually engaged in physical sexual contact with the girl.
The 25-year-old wrestling coach was formerly employed by Desert Edge High School in Goodyear until August 2013, when he was suspended of sexting with a female student. Officials from the school decided to report him to police. In December 2013, he was arrested on suspicion of luring a child for the purposes of sexual assault and sexual exploitation. Later, the man pleaded guilty to one charge of child abuse with sexual intent last June.
According to court papers, the man was accused of using his cellphone to send messages to a female high school student's cellphone. The messages were described as sexual in nature. According to authorities, they spent several months investigating the man.
Being convicted of sexual conduct with a minor can result in a lengthy jail sentence; however, as the above case has indicated, communicating with a minor with sexual intent can also result in jail time, even if no physical contact was ever made with the minor. In cases where evidence against the accused is overwhelmingly strong, those accused of sex crimes may wish to enter into a plea deal with the prosecution to try to get a less severe sentence for the crime. In other situations, it may be possible to defend oneself against sex crime allegations in order to try to achieve a verdict of not guilty.
Source: myfoxphoenix.com, "Ex-Goodyear school coach sentenced in sex case" Aug. 06, 2014