LITTLE VALLEY, N.Y. — A former Olean High School teacher accused of sexually abusing a student has pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree criminal sex act.
Robert J. Washington pleaded guilty to the class E felony count Monday in Cattaraugus County Court, nearly 10 months after being charged with having sexual contact with a then-13-year-old male student during non-school-sanctioned tutoring sessions.
The 37-year-old dismissed special education teacher had previously pleaded not guilty to a litany of other charges, including two counts of second-degree criminal sex act, class D felonies; two counts of third-degree criminal sex act, class E felonies; as well as six counts of second-degree sex abuse, six counts of forcible touching and a count of endangering the welfare of a child, all class A misdemeanors.
The plea means there will be no trial for Washington, who will be sentenced in June and could face a year in Cattaraugus County Jail.
Amber Kerling, Cattaraugus County’s first assistant district attorney, said while her office does not take plea deals in order to avoid trial, it does consider the welfare of children involved. She added what led to Washington’s plea deal wasn’t “outside the norm.”
“An allegation is made, we take the correct process,” she said. “There’s a lot of discussion about options, what’s appropriate in any particular case and try to come to an agreement.”
Frank Housh, Washington’s Buffalo-based attorney, said his client’s plea and the dismissal of other charges is “standard.”
“People degrade plea deals because they feel everybody is getting off easy, but in this case, the government, the judge, my client, me and the victim came to a resolution of a very, very difficult case, that everybody can live with,” he said.
Despite the guilty plea, Housh maintained the case was defensible and that Washington’s written confession to Olean police would have been inadmissible in court. Kerling and Housh had scheduled a Huntley Hearing, which reviews how police obtained statements from a defendant, but the two sides came to an agreement before it ever happened.
Housh, who said Tuesday that Washington now stands by his confession, said his client accepted the plea agreement because it was fair and he did not want to put the victim through “having to relive this on the witness stand.”
According to a June 17 Olean Police Department report, Washington signed a statement admitting he had sexual contact with the student on several occasions between May 21 and June 16 at both his home and the student’s home. In the statement, Washington claimed he had never touched another student in the past. He also said he is on medication for concussions, which sometimes has side effects, like making him “forget things.”
The Olean City School District Board of Education fired Washington less than two weeks after he was charged. District officials said they were already considering terminating Washington before the charges due to his teaching abilities and performance in the classroom, and that they could not have legally fired him for the charges until he was convicted or he pleaded guilty.
Dr. Colleen Taggerty, OCSD superintendent, said the district had no knowledge of the abuse and that Washington, a 1997 OHS graduate, had no “red flags” when hired.
Washington originally faced a maximum sentence of one year and three months to three years in New York state prison for the guilty plea, Kerling said. However the judge has agreed Washington will spend no more than a year in Cattaraugus County Jail if he surrenders his teaching license, which Housh said he will do. Washington will also have to register as a sex offender.
Sentencing is set for 9:30 a.m. June 26.
