As first reported today by Reach for the Wall, and confirmed by court documents, former Curl Burke Swim Club (now reformed as Nation’s Capital Aquatic Club) coach Noah Rucker was convicted of one misdemeanor offense of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Editor’s note: The charge has been updated after retrieving court records; the initial charge was misreported by Reach for the Wall.
In a deal reached with prosecutors, Rucker entered an “Alford Plea,” meaning that he was found guilty of the offense but did not admit guilt. Effectively, Rucker acknowledged with the plea that the prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convince a judge or jury of his guilt.
The female complainant in the case claimed that Rucker had inappropriate contact with her a decade ago when she was 17 and he was 29; the original charge was three counts of “indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial and/or supervisory position.”
Reach for the Wall reports that the expectation is a 6-month prison sentence, a banishment from returning to coaching swimming (Rucker is still not on the USA Swimming permanently banned or ineligible list, though they did hold an emergency hearing in June with the news first broke).
“Mr. Rucker denies any responsibility in the case,” Rucker’s attorney Thomas B. Walsh said of the result. “In light of the charges and in all fairness to the parties involved, an agreement was reached to reduce the charges to misdemeanors.”
Rucker’s most recent coaching job was with the Curl Burke Swim Club.
Credit goes to “the horses mouth” on Fairfax Underground. Thank you, whoever you are for finally giving real information.
Several of you have spent many months posting and reading about a topic that you know very little about. You listened to accusations and immediately formed an opinion without being educated on the topic. Don’t forget that in our legal system you’re innocent until proven guilty. In this case, this man was deemed guilty before any evidence or details were presented.
All three felonies were dropped because there was no supporting evidence. Let me be clear that the misdemeanor the plea was for had nothing to do with sexual contact with anyone. He will not be on the sex offender registry. EDIT testified in court that she lied and fabricated details that were false.
He took a misdemeanor plea ’cause the other option was to go in front of a jury and face three felonies. If you know anything about our court system you will know that sometimes there is evidence that is not allowed to be presented to the jury. instead of taking a risk of the jury believing her lies and convicting him of even one felony, it was smart to take 85 days and be done with it. We all see stories about people that spend many years in prison for crimes they did not commit. And it’s usually based on false testimonies and inaccurate evidence.
So should we now turn the attention to the woman who falsely accused a man of rape? She obviously has issues that need to be addressed. Everyone was calling Noah names and talking crap. Let’s now discuss how EDIT lied and wasted everyones time, money, and resources.
PARAGRAPH EDITED
But none of the news outlets are going to report these details. Hopefully you have all learned a lesson about the media. And maybe even a little about yourselves. Let’s all spend more time focusing on our own lives instead of the misfortunes of others.
Editor’s Note: because the victim has not identified herself publicly and was a minor at the time of the allegations, we can’t let her be identified in our comments. Edits above reflect that.
The above comment was obviously posted by someone who is close to him and in denial…perhaps his fiancee? He plead because he is guilty. He is accepting guilt without having to say he is guilty and in the criminal world, this is pure guilt. Otherwise, he would not face imprisonment. Stop protecting him. The majority of people in the swimming world know his past and thankfully, someone finally had the guts to call him out in order to protect others. His fiancee can continue to blind herself by his charm and if she chooses to do this, she is as much to blame when their union ultimately falls to pieces.
KNEWHEWASGUILTY – If the jury had ANY reason to believe he was actually guilty of any kind of sexual offense with a minor, no plea agreement to a mis-demeanor would have been allowed. They would have wanted to make a big example of him, he would have been in much more trouble, serving a long sentence, tons of media coverage, having to register in the national sex offense registry.
The “accuser” stated that many other people were in the same situation as her, sounds like you believe that to be a fact as well. However, where are all of those “other people”? Why has no one come forward?
As was stated above, the actual charge he ended up with was not a sexual offense at all. He was NOT guilty of that type of wrong doing. He is serving his time for what he did admit to doing and that should be good enough.
Stop perpetuating this type of internet tribunal and get on with your life. I’m sure Mr. Rucker would like to get on with his.
P.S. No I am not the one who wrote “For Real” and I am not his fiance. Who are you?
factoid. His charges in the plea were to contributing, as well as sexual intercourse for a minor. Blammo. People plea out to avoid going to court and being convicted of higher charges.
*sexual intercourse WITH a minor.
“A former Fairfax County swim coach has been convicted of a misdemeanor offense for having sexual contact with an underage girl more than a decade ago, according to attorneys.
Under a deal reached with prosecutors, Noah Rucker, 40, of Bristow, on Tuesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court entered an Alford plea to one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In an Alford plea, a defendant admits there’s enough evidence for a conviction, but doesn’t admit guilt.”
-washington post