Appeals Court Upholds Three-Year Sentence For Former Coach, Councilman

Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 7:28 AM

By Mike Perleberg @mikedup84

Chad Pindell appealed his sentence after pleading guilty to felony child seduction earlier this year.

Chad Pindell. Photo by Ripley County Sheriff's Office.

(Ripley County, Ind.) - The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the sentence of a former Ripley County Councilman and Jac-Cen-Del High School assistant girls basketball coach.

Chad Pindell, 36, of Napoleon, pleaded guilty to Child Seduction (level 5 felony) last January after he committed sex acts at the school with a 17-year-old player he coached in 2018. He had also sent sexual images to the teen.

“The testimony further revealed that (the victim) had been a good student and athlete in high school. After Pindell was charged with the two offenses, the small community had ostracized (the victim) and blamed her for Pindell’s plight,” the appellate court’s decision stated.

Following the plea agreement, a special judge assigned to the case, Dearborn County’s Judge Jonathan Cleary, initially rejected a plea agreement that did not include jail time.

Under a new agreement reached between Pindell and prosecutors which left the sentence up to the judge’s discretion, Pindell was sentenced in February to three years in prison – that being the advisory sentence for a level 5 felony crime. Cleary declared that Pindell must register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Pindell appealed his sentence, arguing that the sentence was inappropriate given his character.

The court of appeals ruled Friday, August 23 to uphold Pindell’s sentence, stating that he failed to meet to burden to persuade the court.

“Turning to Pindell’s character, we note that Pindell, a former teacher and a coach, pastor, and county councilman, violated his position of trust by engaging in oral sex in, as the trial court pointed out, ‘the home of that trust,’ his office in the high school locker room,” the judges wrote in the six-page decision.

Not only that, but the panel stated that the evidence would have supported an even longer prison sentence for Pindell.

Pindell remains in prison at the New Castle Correctional Facility, according to the Indiana Department of Corrections. His projected release date is in April 2021.

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