In the latest bad news in what has become a tumultuous few weeks for swimming in North East Indianapolis, Chris Wheat was sentenced today to 10 years in prison. Wheat is a former assistant coach at North Lawrence High School.
In May, Wheat plead guilty to two felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, and one felony count of felony child solicitation. This was a reduction from the six counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, along with the solicitation charge. Under the terms of the plea agreement, 10 years was the maximum sentence that Wheat faced.
Wheat, who is 37, had charges brought against him after a relationship with a 14-year old girl who he had coached since she was 11 years old. The acts that Wheat was charged with took place in a coach’s office and in a closet. Additionally, Wheat sent hundreds of suggestive text messages to the girl.
According to 6News, a local TV station, one of the text messages presented in court read: “Im the snuggle guy…luv to snuggle…windows open cold air blowing in and ur in my arms.”
The girl’s parents became uncomfortable of the coach’s relationship with her by October of 2009, and reported their suspicions at that time. Further investigation discovered a possible attempt at advances upon another young girl, but it was reported that she was able to rebuke his advances.
His 10 year term will include 2 years in a community corrections program, similar to a half-way house, and will be followed by 5 years of probation. The family has also retained a lawyer with the intent to file a civil suit against USA-Swimming, seeking “cultural change and leadership change at USA Swimming.” Wheat was also the director and coach of the Lawrence Swim Team, a private USA-Swimming based club program, where he had previously coached the girl.
The sentence lengths should make coaches think really hard before they engage in this sort of behavior. 10 years in prison, for one incident, is no easy time. As with what we’ve seen in many of these other cases, these incidents are not just “coaches getting caught up in a moment,” and rather are long-term, planned attacks.
While in general, I feel that the USA Swimming administration has done a terrible job of policing this issue, I’m not sure how much of a case there will be in this particular instance, short of class-action status. USA-Swimming banned the coach immediately after the allegations were brought to its attention, and there has been no evidence brought forth so far that Wheat had any sort of history that would have been uncovered by any amount of due diligence.
