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High
school coach admits to having sex with player
Loses
teaching certificate, gets probation and jail time
by
Ivan Foley
Landmark editor
A basketball coach who admit-ted having sex with
a girl on his team at Oak Park High School has been sentenced
to two years probation and 10 days in the Platte County
jail.
Darin Mason, age 34, no longer coaches at Oak Park, having
been placed on leave in March of 2000 after school officials
learned he was being investigated.
He pled guilty on Thursday in Platte County Circuit Court
to second degree statutory rape and second degree statutory
sodomy. The girl was 15 when the sex acts occurred between
Sept. 1, 1999 and March 27, 2000 at Mason's home in Lake
Waukomis in Platte County.
Prosecutors said Mason will lose his Missouri teaching
certificate. He will also be required to be involved in
a sex offenders treatment program. In addition, he must
register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Mason must also perform 100 hours of community service,
write an apology letter to the victim and her family,
and have no other contact with the victim or her family.
"Cases of this nature involve issues of trust, authority,
and community. Parents trust teachers and coaches with
their children, the children are put under the authority
of the teachers and coaches, and when an allegation of
sexual contact arises, it splits the community,"
said Platte County Prosecutor Todd Graves.
"The important thing to remember is that the young
victim was absolutely telling the truth. It is no longer
his word against hers. The defendant has admitted all
of the allegations," Graves added.
According to court papers, the girl met Mason in the
summer of 1996 before her sixth grade year when she was
at basketball camp at New Mark School. Mason befriended
the victim and her father, visiting them almost daily.
Sexual abuse began during the summer of 1999 when the
victim was at Heartland Behavioral Center and the defendant
would visit her there. After her release in August of
1999, Mason began having sexual intercourse and oral sex
with her at his Lake Waukomis home, prosecutors report.
The North Kansas City School District hired Mason in
1995. For four years he taught physical education at New
Mark Middle School and coached the girls basketball team
at Oak Park High School. He transferred to Oak Park in
the fall of 1999.
"I'm pleased that we have been able to convict and
remove this one bad apple from a position of trust and
authority in our schools," Graves said.
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