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A former DeKalb High School teacher and coach convicted of inappropriate contact with a former student is in trouble again after being found with the same girl.
Scott R. Coffing, 33, is now charged with misdemeanor invasion of privacy after police found him Saturday night in Pleasant Lake with the girl, now 17, Steuben Magistrate Court officials said.
Coffing, of Rochester, was being held in the Steuben County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail. He was in court Tuesday to answer to the new charge, court staff said.
Coffing was a social studies teacher and girls’ junior varsity team coach at DeKalb High School for about four years. He resigned in June 2006 after a student’s mother learned her daughter and Coffing were in a romantic relationship and contacted police and school authorities.
Coffing, who was 32 at the time, admitted to kissing, hugging and engaging in sexual acts with the then-16-year-old student between April 13 and June 1, 2006, often at his Angola apartment, according to court documents.
After Coffing pleaded guilty in March to felony child seduction, Steuben Superior Judge Allen Wheat sentenced him to two years in jail but suspended one year of that sentence. Coffing was allowed to serve the first half of the sentence on work release and the second through community corrections if he qualified.
Wheat also ordered Coffing to serve one year of probation and have no contact with the girl until his probation expires – when the girl will have turned 18.
Child seduction occurs when a person at least 18 years old and in a supervisory role, such as a school district worker, has sex with or engages in sexual acts with a child who is at least 16 but younger than 18, according to Indiana law.
During his March sentencing, Coffing called the girl “the most amazing person I’ve ever met” and said he was not ashamed of the relationship and that he would always love her.
The girl testified she was happy during their relationship, which she called consensual, but her mother said the girl suffered depression and missed school because of the relationship.
aturner@jg.net
