Mary Alice Reporting – Facing two counts of gross sexual imposition for having inappropriate contact with a minor, a 37-year-old is heading to prison.
Ted Smart appeared, on Friday, before Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Judge Michael Ernest, after pleading no contest in early April.
At the sentencing, Smart’s mother asked the judge to consider not sending him to jail as a co-worker noted their friendship, and both maintained that Smart could not have done what he was found guilty of.
Judge Ernest said he took into account several factors in account and that he would not dismiss the fact that the victim, in this case, is a young minor, Smart was alone with the child and in a position of being a mentor and protector.
“By your own statements in the report, there is what you would describe as showering, in which there was some type of explanation on proper showing or something along those line, all of which seems suspect to me. There is also the troubling element that the mother would come home and find the bathroom door locked.”
Ernest also noted some juvenile offenses, a protection violation, and the troubling fact that while under bail terms, Smart tested positive for marijuana and alcohol use.
“I do have concerns of your following a court order based upon the prior conviction of violating a court order, so I’m going to determine that an aggregate of 24 months in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is appropriate.”
Smart must register as a Tier 1 sex offender and once released from prison, will be under five years of supervision.
Judge Ernest stressed that should a judicial release be filed, he would consider it but he would not take serious consideration should there be any violation of not following the rules at the institution.
Copyright WTUZ Radio Inc., 2022