Volunteer coach indicted for allegedly filming minor
NEWARK – A Licking County grand jury indicted a Licking Heights volunteer wrestling coach on a single felony charge after he allegedly set up a camera to record a student changing recently.
Anthony Haist, 23, of Pickerington, was indicted on one count of pandering obscenity involving a minor or impaired person, a second-degree felony, in Licking County Common Pleas Court last week.
According to court records filed recently, the minor victim went to Licking Heights Central Intermediate School for wrestling practice and met with a coach, identified as Haist.
A criminal complaint said after working out, Haist allegedly told the child the locker room was contaminated by COVID-19 and to change clothes in the storage closet. The child allegedly noticed a cell phone set up recording the teen changing while in the state of nudity and while reviewing the video, saw Haist setting up the camera.
According to Pataskala Police Deputy Chief Michael Boals, the practice was more like a oneon-one session between the coach and student.
He said the incident remains under investigation by their agency.
A 2017 Advocate article shows Anthony Haist wrestled for Licking Heights while a student there before finishing at Mount Vernon. He returned to Licking Heights to help in the district’s wrestling program.
According to Haist’s personnel file, he was placed on paid administrative leave on Feb. 24 from his educational aide and coaching positions due to alleged misconduct while on the job.
Haist’s personnel file also holds a Sept. 3, 2019 letter memorializing an August 2019 pre-disciplinary meeting regarding Haist.
According to the letter, Licking Heights’ Director of Human Resources and Student Discipline Kim Henderson wrote they discussed an Aug. 22, 2019 incident where Haist “demonstrated unprofessional behavior with several students at the Middle School, one of which was (his) assigned student).”
As a result, Henderson wrote discipline including a written reprimand, one-year last chance agreement, and involuntary transfer to another school building should be imposed.
According to the last chance agreement, Haist “engaged in unprofessional behavior for a staff member” as identified in two Board of Education policies: “leaving an assigned student unattended, transporting a student in a private vehicle, fraternizing with a student, and electronic communication with a student without prior approval on non-curricular or co-curricular/extracurricular events.”
Licking Heights’ Superintendent Philip Wagner recently told The Advocate that Haist serves as a volunteer wrestling coach for the district and is currently on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
Haist’s personnel file shows he served as a middle school assistant track coach for the 2016-2021 school years, a middle school cross country coach for the 2018-2019 school year and cross country assistant coach for the 2019-2020 school year, and a middle school wrestling coach for the 2018-2019 school year.
Licking County court records show the case is set for arraignment on Tuesday morning.