MISSOURI HIGH SCHOOL COACH CHARGED WITH SEX CRIMES INVOLVING STUDENT, PROSECUTOR SAY

December 16, 2020
Luke Nozicka
Kansas City

A metro area high school football coach was charged Wednesday with sexual crimes for allegedly molesting a teenager more than a decade ago in Jackson County, prosecutors said.
Park Hill High School coach Joshua Hood, now 43, was charged with five counts of statutory sodomy, second-degree attempted statutory rape, child molestation and second-degree statutory rape, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol launched an investigation in April into allegations from a woman who said she was the victim of sexual offenses by Hood when she was younger than 17 and he was 26 and 27, according to charging documents.
The alleged crimes occurred in several locations in Jackson County in 2003 and 2004 when Hood was a teacher and coach at Holden High School and the victim was a student, prosecutors said.
Hood’s attorney, Greg Watt, said Hood maintains his innocence. He said Hood has no criminal history and called his reputation in the community “stellar.”
“We look forward to our opportunity to defend him in a court of law,” Watt said.
In a statement, Park Hill School District said Hood, who has been in the district since 2013, had been placed on administrative leave. School officials said they were not aware of any similar allegations against Hood at Park Hill.
“We take any possible harm to students extremely seriously, so when we found out about these allegations this afternoon, the district immediately placed him on administrative leave,” the statement said.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article247905365.html

Message from Executive Director Laura A. Ahearn: Please visit our website at www.crimevictimscenter.org for news, information and resources in your community.

Follow on:
https://www.facebook.com/ParentsForMegansLaw