Bay Area volleyball mentor pleads guilty in player abuse case

A volleyball coach accused of slapping a teenage participant at a sports activities program in Marin pleaded responsible Tuesday to a baby abuse cost.

Konrad Ott, a co-founder of the Absolute Volleyball Membership in San Rafael, admitted to a misdemeanor rely of inflicting unjustifiable bodily ache or psychological struggling on a baby. Ott, a 52-year-old Petaluma resident, was not required to attend the listening to in Marin County Superior Courtroom, and his lawyer entered the plea on his behalf.

The utmost sentence below the plea settlement is 4 years of probation, stated Decide Roy Chernus, studying the provide sheet from the bench. Chernus set the sentencing for Might 15.

The sufferer, Grace Hodges of Novato, stated she approves of the end result, even with out a potential jail sentence. She stated the very fact there was a legal investigation ought to make Ott perceive that he wants to vary.

“It's a reduction to know he’s not going to be again within the membership having the identical affect on different women that he did on me,” stated Hodges, 17, a senior at Marin Catholic Excessive Faculty. “Now he’s lastly being held accountable.”

Hodges’ mom Marisa stated her daughter’s perseverance by way of the case will assist all of the gamers who got here after.

“He’s being held accountable and justice is served,” she stated.

Ott declined to offer a press release in regards to the plea. His protection lawyer, Jessyca Hoagland, additionally declined to remark.

The plea got here precisely a yr after the crime. Ott was accused of putting Hodges within the face throughout a apply session on the membership. A witness stated he did so after Hodges requested a query he known as “silly.”

Hodges’ household supplied San Rafael police with damage images exhibiting a bruised cheek with damaged pores and skin.

After further investigation, San Rafael police booked Ott into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of felony little one endangerment. He was launched on bail pending a evaluation by the Marin County District Legal professional’s Workplace.

The prosecution selected two misdemeanor counts, the one he in the end pleaded responsible to, and a cost of corporal damage upon a baby.

The volleyball membership, which expenses charges and journey bills that may exceed $10,000 a yr per participant, has helped launch many gamers into elite faculty packages. After the incident involving Hodges, a number of gamers and oldsters stated Ott had a historical past of volatility and oral abuse in opposition to gamers.

Ott stepped down from teaching on the membership after his arrest. A former coach at Marin Catholic, he began the membership about 20 years in the past together with his spouse Katie Pease, who used to teach at Redwood Excessive Faculty.

Pease stays a co-director of the membership together with Jake Spain, a membership coach who was promoted upon Ott’s exit. Spain is a former volleyball coach at Marin Catholic.

Ott stays below investigation by U.S. Middle for SafeSport, a nonprofit licensed by Congress to handle abuses in opposition to beginner athletes. The group has quickly suspended him from teaching gamers in USA Volleyball, the governing physique for the game.

The potential penalties in opposition to Ott vary from a written warning to everlasting banishment from teaching. Representatives of SafeSport didn't reply to an inquiry Tuesday in regards to the standing of its investigation.

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