Sam Seiple, a former high school swim coach in Ohio, is facing new charges that he had a sexual relationship with an underage girl in 1995 and 1996. Seiple is already banned by USA Swimming after pleading guilty to sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl in 2014 and 2015.
Last summer, Seiple took a plea deal, admitting to having sexual contact with the 16-year-old girl. She was technically past Ohio’s age of consent, but state law still made the relationship illegal based on Seiple’s position of authority as a coach over the minor girl. Prosecutors were prepared to charge him with sexual battery at the time if Seiple didn’t agree to a lesser misdemeanor unlawful sexual conduct with a minor charge as part of the plea deal. Seiple was permanently banned by USA Swimming and will have to register as a sex offender for 15 years, but he was only sentenced to 180 days in jail, with all but two of them suspended by the judge. The victim in the case said she agreed with those terms, only wanting an opportunity to tell her story and for Seiple to be unable to coach moving forward.
He had previously coached in the area since 1994 and was most recently the swimming & diving coach at McKinley High School in Canton, Ohio. The new charges, per Inde Online, come from very early in that coaching career. Seiple is now charged with third-degree felony sexual battery, the charge he avoided with his 2017 plea deal. Seiple now stands accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor he coached, with the relationship taking place between December 1995 and May 1996.
This 1995 victim came forward during the 2014 victim’s case. the Inde Online story doesn’t give her specific age when the alleged abuse happened, but say she was under 18 and that the alleged sexual contact, like the other case, was a crime because of Seiple’s position of authority as a coach. The case can proceed because Ohio changed laws in 2015 lengthening the statute of limitations on sexual assault from 20 to 25 years.
Ohio Revised Code Section 2901.13(J) spells out the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse:
(J) The period of limitation for a violation of any provision of Title XXIX of the Revised Code that involves a physical or mental wound, injury, disability, or condition of a nature that reasonably indicates abuse or neglect of a child under eighteen years of age or of a child with a developmental disability or physical impairment under twenty-one years of age shall not begin to run until either of the following occurs:
(1) The victim of the offense reaches the age of majority.
(2) A public children services agency, or a municipal or county peace officer that is not the parent or… Read more »