Wrestling
coach gets 3 years' probation
Saturday, May 28, 2005 • BY
MIKE FRASSINELLI • Star-Ledger Staff
A former Warren County high school
wrestling coach accused of sending sexually explicit
telephone text messages to one student and providing liquor
to underage former students was given three years of
probation yesterday in exchange for forfeiting his teaching
license.
Jon Lesher, 28, who coached the Warren
Hills High School wrestling team for two seasons before
abruptly resigning in the fall, stood yesterday before
Superior Court Judge John Pursel in Belvidere, Warren
County.
"You forfeit your teaching license in all
the United States. Do you understand that?" Pursel asked
Lesher.
"Yes," Lesher, a muscular former
wrestling coach with a shaved head and wire-rimmed glasses,
replied sternly.
"You can never teach in any private or
public school. Do you understand that?"
"Yes."
Lesher, who earlier pleaded not guilty to
the charges, was allowed to enter the county's
pretrial-intervention program, putting him on probation for
three years. He and his lawyer, Daniel Zemsky, declined to
comment after yesterday's hearing.
Lesher last year sent numerous sexually
explicit text messages to the cell phone of a
then-17-year-old girl who attended Warren Hills High,
prosecutors said.
He also was charged with two counts of
"child abuse" and four counts of offering alcoholic
beverages to underage persons. Prosecutors said Lesher
provided booze to underage former students last year during
a Fourth of July party at his home in Washington Borough,
Warren County.
"It was the position of this office that
it would be inappropriate for this defendant to continue in
his teaching career," Warren County Prosecutor Thomas S.
Ferguson said yesterday.
In October, Lesher was suspended from his
job teaching social studies at Warren Hills. In only his
second year as coach, he had led Warren Hills to a sectional
final.
Lesher was facing maximum prison
sentences of 18 months on the child abuse charges and six
months on the disorderly persons charges.
The investigation into his case might
have caused a collateral probe. During that investigation,
the name of former Warren Hills physical education teacher
John Kurdilla arose.
Kurdilla, 26, has since been charged with
one count of offering an alcoholic beverage to underage
persons and three counts of child abuse for providing
alcohol to students under age 18, prosecutors
said.
Police say the night before the April 16,
2004, Warren Hills prom, Kurdilla met a former student at
school and handed over more than $200 worth of alcohol for a
party.
Kurdilla's next hearing is scheduled for
June 9 in Belvidere.
Mike Frassinelli covers Warren County. He may be reached
at mfras sinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
|