Pickerington teen gets five years probation, correctional program for sexual assault charges

PICKERINGTON, Ohio (WCMH) -- A delinquent ninth grader, whose return to the classroom at Pickerington High School North led to an investigation into the principal, won’t be returning to the school building, at least for several months.

NBC4 is not reporting the 15-year-old's name because he is not an adult.

The teen appeared in a Fairfield County courtroom Wednesday for a disposition hearing -- the juvenile version of sentencing.

The court had found the teen delinquent of sexually abusing two much younger children in 2021, and he was accused of propositioning a third on a school bus after he was allowed to return to school in January.

Judge Jerry Catanzaro listened to impact statements from the parents of the first two victims, who asked that the teen be removed from his parents' home and placed in the custody of the Ohio Department of Youth Services.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get past this. Our lives will never be the same. We are all in counseling. I’m sad and I’m frustrated that this has happened more than once,” said the father whose son was five years old when the teen sexually assaulted him at a party in August.

The five-year-old's mother said her son still struggles to feel safe when he uses the bathroom and has nightmares about what happened to him last summer.

"Our whole world was turned upside down," she said.

“Our family has continued to be victimized over the past several months,” said another woman, whose daughter was eight years old when the teen raped her at a swimming pool in June. “These incidents prove that the delinquent’s parents have repeatedly enabled their son and placed other children in danger.”

The victims' parents said the teen was allowed to return to school in January by Pickerington North principal Mark Ulbrich, suggesting the decision was made because Ulbrich knows the teen’s father, an employee at another high school.

Ulbrich is currently working out of the Pickerington schools' district office, pending an investigation. A spokesperson for the district would not comment on the investigation Wednesday, other than to say it's ongoing.

"I've been doing this for 20 years," Aaron Conrad, the teen's defense attorney, said. "I didn't see anything handled differently than what it would have been, other than the fact that my client had family members that were a little bit higher profile."

He said his client has been in counseling since the first incident in June and now receives individual, group, and family counseling each week.

The teen’s mother testified to her son’s physical and psychological ailments, which she said contributed to his academic struggles and hyperactivity. The defense argued the best place for the teen is at home, where he is currently on house arrest and being monitored by a GPS device.

Catanzaro sentenced the teen to five years' probation, upon the condition that he complete a program while living at a Community Corrections Facility, which the judge said could take as little as four or as many as nine months. He is allowing the teen to remain at home until the court finds a facility that offers a program geared toward sex offenders.

“The boy’s got problems. He knows it. We know that. And we all want to help him,” Catanzaro said.

“I think the judge was fair, and he made a decision that he thought was right for this case," Conrad said. "I know the victims’ families wanted justice. I hope that they see this as justice in this case.”

An attorney for the victims’ families said Wednesday's decision can bring them some closure, as they continue to heal.

“My family will not be defined by this tragedy. We will come out of this stronger, more loving, closer to God, and continue to live our lives,” the five-year-old's father said during his victim impact statement.

Both victims' mothers addressed the teen directly during their statements.

"I want you to know that our five-year-old describes you as a 'good guy who wanted to be bad,'" one mother said. "You have the ability to take one of two paths today. One: you can accept the wrong you've done... or continue this path, continue to export this damage onto others and continue to spend the rest of your life in the justice system."

"You are a child, and God loves you right where you sit," the other victim's mother said.

The teen testified briefly, mostly answering "yes" or "no" questions from Conrad. He closed by saying, “I feel horrible and sorry for the people and families that I’ve hurt.”

He’s still facing an importuning (soliciting a minor) charge for the January incident.