Sheila McLaughlin Enquirer staff writer

Ex-assistant principal pleads no contest to assault of girl, 14
LEBANON - A former assistant principal at Lebanon Junior School accused of molesting a student who lived with him as a foster child avoided all sex charges Friday when the case took an unusual twist.

Warren County prosecutors dropped 15 counts of sexual battery against Thomas Monti, 59, who was accused of having sex with the 14-year-old girl in 2004, and allowed him to plead no contest to a single charge of felonious assault.

The plea agreement outraged the girl's mother, who said she was told by prosecutors that the case was too shaky to take to trial.

"It ain't right at all," Annette Cavins, of Morrow, said outside the courtroom.

"It's just a smack on the hand because he's got a title, he's got a status in the community and he's got money to pay for a good lawyer."

The agreement calls for Monti, who resigned from the school staff last year, to lose his Ohio teaching license and face up to five years of probation. He will return to Judge James Flannery's Common Pleas courtroom for sentencing in about a month.

Monti also will be required to stay away from schools and children while he is on probation, and undergo evaluation by a therapist to determine if he needs sex offender treatment. He avoided being designated a sex offender.

Monti, who didn't have a criminal record, faced up to eight years in prison on the felonious assault charge, and up to 75 years if convicted on all the sexual battery charges.

Defense attorney Charles Rittgers said he doubts Monti will spend "more than one day in jail."

Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel would not discuss the plea agreement.

Cavins said Leslie Meyer, the assistant prosecutor assigned to the case, told her the plea agreement was necessary because Rittgers intended to call several teachers as character witnesses for Monti, who was an educator for 33 years.

"They felt that would throw the decision from the jury to his side, not ours," Cavins said.

The victim and at least two of Cavins' other children were placed in foster care after their mother was arrested and sent to jail for driving drunk, then jailed on a probation violation for smoking marijuana, Cavins said.

She since has regained custody of her daughters - both of whom lived with Monti and his wife in 2004.

Monti, who hurried out of the courthouse after checking in with a probation officer, maintains that nothing sexual happened with the girl, Rittgers said.

Rittgers said prosecutors would have had trouble with the girl's credibility because she had a reputation of fabricating stories and had an extensive psychiatric history.

But, a trial was still risky for the defense.

"You never know what a jury is going to do," Rittgers said. "My client is 59. He's never been in trouble in his life. Prison would kill him. If we had a bad jury and something went wrong. It's just a risk analysis."

He said the girl's allegation against Monti surfaced in a letter she wrote to her brother, who is in state juvenile detention. Cavins intercepted the letter.

Monti's reputation is ruined despite the dismissal of sex charges, Rittgers said.

Cavins said her daughter is suffering.

"My daughter is going to suffer the rest of her life for this. She's got to find a way to deal with it and put it behind her the best she can," the mother said.

"At least she was strong enough to stand up and make sure he didn't do that to no other kids."

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com

The Enquirer/Tony Jones

Annette Cavins of Morrow got emotional talking about Thomas Monti's plea for allegedly molesting her daughter.
 
 

Copyright (c) The Cincinnati Enquirer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.