Former Jeannette wrestling coach held for court on sex charges
As a former high school wrestling coach accused of sexual assault entered a courtroom Thursday in Jeannette, the two students waiting to testify against him began to cry.
The girls’ tears continued as they took the witness stand, describing to a district judge how Joshua Westfall, 26, of Jeannette, kissed one and inappropriately touched the other.
Following the testimony of the 16-year-old girls and the school principal during a preliminary hearing, District Judge Bernice McCutcheon held Mr. Westfall for trial on charges of indecent assault, institutional sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of minors.
Mr. Westfall’s attorney, Jeff Monzo, tried to persuade the judge to drop at least one of the charges and argued that the girls’ testimonies were inconsistent.
“This is some high school girls upset with him about things that did or did not occur relative to things that they wanted him to do that he actually wouldn’t do,” Mr. Monzo said during an interview with reporters after the hearing.
Both girls testified that they and two boys on the high school’s wrestling team spent two nights during the wrestling season at Mr. Westfall’s home. They said they told their parents they were staying at each other’s houses when they were really at Mr. Westfall’s residence.
One of them slept on the first floor in the living room with the wrestlers, and the other slept in Mr. Westfall’s room, the girls said.
On one of those nights, according to a criminal complaint, Mr. Westfall “undressed [one of the girls, who at the time was 15] from the waist down” and had sexual contact with her.
The girl who says she slept in Mr. Westfall’s room testified she was comfortable with cuddling
with and kissing Mr. Westfall, but when he inappropriately touched her, she asked him to stop and he “respected that“and “never did it again.”
She said she did not plan to tell anyone about the incident. It came to light when another student reported the incident to the Jeannette High School principal, who went to police.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does not identify alleged victims of sex assaults.
The girl who says she was kissed by Mr. Westfall said it occurred at her home in late fall, when he and the student who reported the situation to the principal visited while her parents were not home. The girl, who identified Mr. Westfall as a “friend,” said she thought Mr. Westfall was intoxicated when he kissed her, something she was not comfortable with, but at the time “didn’t look at it as a huge deal.”
The girl who says she slept in Mr. Westfall’s room told police that Mr. Westfall, who was not a teacher at the school and resigned in February without giving a reason, started the relationship by texting her. She testified that the two have also communicated via Snapchat.