Former Tennis Coach Convicted of Soliciting Sex From Child Online
COVINGTON, Ky. — On Aug. 6, in Kentucky’s first jury trial since COVID-19 shut down the court system, former youth tennis coach Timothy Mitchell was convicted of Unlawful Use of an Electronic Device to Procure a Minor For Sex. The jury deliberated only 20 minutes before rendering the guilty verdict after a three-day trial which started on Mitchell’s 62nd birthday. At the conclusion of the sentencing phase in the trial, the jury recommended Mitchell serve 2 1/2 years in prison from a range of 1 to 5 years for the Class D felony. Mitchell will also be required to register as a sexual offender.
The investigation leading to Mitchell’s arrest began while Kenton County Police Detective Brian Jones was in a training class to teach police on how to spot online child predators. Jones followed the classroom instructions and created an online persona pretending to be a 14-year-old female. Mitchell responded to the “child” with an array of sexual comments, questions, and even emailed a photo of his genitals on the very first day of online contact. Mitchell sent numerous emails requesting to meet the child for sex despite being repeatedly reminded of the girl’s young age. Mitchell also suggested the girl tell her guardian she was taking tennis lessons from him so the two could spend time alone together. Mitchell’s emails also described various sex acts he desired to engage in with the child and told her he wanted to be her “Daddy Lover.”
On March 12, 2019, after communicating with the child for only a week, Mitchell traveled from his Mt. Airy, Ohio home to a location in Kenton County where he planned to have sex with the child but was instead met by Kenton County Police Officer Adam Watson and Captain Gary Helton, who arrested him. Officers discovered Mitchell was dressed as he had described for the child, with no undergarments beneath his tracksuit. Mitchell also had a new cellular phone he planned to give to the child so her guardian could not track her calls.
Detective Jones brought Mitchell in for questioning but did not disclose he was really the “child” communicating with Mitchell. After Jones described how angry the child’s guardian was upon learning of grown man soliciting the child for sex, Mitchell proceeded to write her an apology letter, reassuring her he had no intentions of kidnapping the girl.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Emily Arnzen and Corey Plybon declined to make any plea offers to the defendant. The case was called for before Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe on Aug. 4, 2020 in an unusual courtroom filled with plexiglass dividers and masked jurors scattered about for social distancing. Everyone but the jurors was cleared from the courtroom so the jury could deliberate while still remaining at least six feet apart. After only twenty minutes, the jury found Mitchell guilty as charged. After a sentencing phase of the trial, the jury then recommended a 2 1/2 year sentence from the 1 to 5 year range for Class D felonies in Kentucky. Mitchell will appear before Judge Summe again for formal, final sentencing in September.
After the trial, Arnzen said: “In the criminal justice system, sexual crimes are considered especially heinous, but sexual crimes against children are the worst of the worst.” Arnzen said some people erroneously discount the vicious nature of online predators when they discover the “child” was actually a police officer. “If it wasn’t Detective Jones, it would have be a real child and she would receive a life sentence suffering from the trauma of being raped by this man,” said Arnzen. “Thank God for great cops like Detective Jones, and thank God our Kenton County Police fund a position dedicated to hunting online predators,” she said.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders applauded the judge, jury, police, and his assistant prosecutors saying, “Being the first trial in Kentucky during this pandemic wasn’t easy but Kenton County is accustomed to leading the way.” Sanders also said he was glad the first jury trial in almost five months put a child predator behind bars. “These cases are a priority in Kenton County and it’s a good reminder that protecting our children is job #1,” Sanders said.
Posted on Friday, August 7th, 2020 @ 9:05AM
Categories: Blog
