Tests to determine fate of sex abusive coach
Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 10 months AGO
A former in-line skating coach from Hayden who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a child will be sentenced next month.
In the meantime, Harold “Joe” Legault, 59, must take a polygraph and undergo a psychosexual exam, the results of which could determine his sentence.
Legault, 59, a former coach of CDA InlineRacing who was indicted for allegedly soliciting sex from a 15-year-old skater, will be sentenced March 10 in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Court.
Legault was accused a year ago of soliciting sex from the skater. Witnesses said he asked the 15-year-old to have sex with him when he was a club coach. He was indicted by a grand jury in April. After posting $50,000 bail and being released from custody, he was charged with violating the conditions of a no-contact order.
Legault allegedly attended a skating event in Spokane in which the alleged victim and her mother competed, and witnesses said that despite a court order prohibiting him for being within 100 feet of the victim, at one point he stood 40 feet away.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors said if the defendant’s polygraph and psychosexual evaluation show he is a low risk to reoffend, they would argue for no more than a retained jurisdiction for Legault.
In a retained jurisdiction, a defendant is sentenced to a prison rehabilitation program that can last for several months.
If Legault’s polygraph shows he is evasive, and psychosexual evaluators report Legault is less than a low risk, prosecutors said they would argue for a longer prison sentence, according to the plea agreement.
The maximum penalty for sexual abuse of a child is 25 years in prison.
After he was charged last year, the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which oversees disciplinary records for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic organizations, sanctioned Legault.
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