A judge sent a former Lincoln High School coach to prison Thursday on a child abuse charge stemming from contact he had with a 17-year-old girl in a classroom.
But Marcus Perry already has served nearly all of his time in the county jail.
Before he learned he would get a year and a half in prison, Perry stood and apologized to the victim and her family and to his wife.
“I haven’t always made the right choices in life,” the 34-year-old said.
But, Perry said, he’s established a relationship with his Lord and savior.
“I’m a good man,” he said.
Regardless, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Amy Goodro said, “This was an abuse of power.”
She said Perry was a well-liked staff member at the school. Students and teachers liked and respected him.
People are also reading…
“And he took advantage of that, and he thought that he could get away with something so crass in the middle of class with other students around,” the prosecutor said.
At trial in June, the victim said that on Dec. 7, near the end of the school day, Perry started messing with the waistband of her sweatpants while she sat in a chair near his desk in the in-school suspension room, then put his hand down her pants.
The teenager, 17 at the time, said he penetrated her without her consent.
Perry, head coach of the Links' girls basketball team and an in-school suspension technician at the time, said it was consensual and that she didn’t tell him to stop or get up and leave right away, which she admitted on cross examination.
Three or four other students on the opposite side of the room didn't see what happened.
But she told a school counselor what happened the next day, and police arrested Perry less than a week later.
The jury found him guilty of child abuse, a charge that carries up to three years in prison, but not guilty of first-degree sexual assault, which could’ve gotten him up to 50 years.
On Thursday, defense attorney Bob Creager said Perry understood that, even if consensual, "it was wrong on so many levels.”
“It’s why the jury concluded Mr. Perry was at least reckless in his conduct with this particular person, and he needs to be punished,” he said.
But, while Perry has done some bad things, which the jury has said constitute a crime, he’s also done a lot of good things, Creager said.
He argued that Perry, who has been in jail since his arrest in December, already has done enough time. He’s a convicted felon now and will have to register as a sex offender for 25 years, ending his dreams of being a teacher.
“That’s a tragedy in and of itself,” he said. “The question is, is any more time in jail going to make anything better? And I think the answer to that is unequivocally no.”
Then, Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus said this sentence was particularly difficult, given the nature of the crime and that Perry had been law-abiding up to that point.
“Mr. Perry, you were a teacher, you were a coach, you were a counselor, you were a mentor. You were absolutely placed in a position of trust,” she said.
Children, their parents and school administration all trusted him, Ideus said.
She said she thinks it’s reasonable for the community to expect staff members and coaches in his position to protect their children or at the very least not to cause them harm. Particularly when it comes to vulnerable children.
“This was a vulnerable person, no doubt about it,” Ideus said.
She ended with the victim’s words to her in a letter. In it, the judge said, the victim said, “Marcus Perry took away my trust in other people.”
She said she thinks that’s a pretty strong statement for a young woman and one that succinctly states the impact this had on her life going forward.
With credit for good time, which cuts his sentence in half, Perry will be close to release, which will be followed by 18 months of post-release supervision.