NORWICH – Former teaching assistant and swim coach Jonathan Aikins was sentenced to one to three years in state prison Thursday for his unlawful surveillance of an unknown number of female students in a Norwich High School locker room over the course of six months in 2011.
In June, school administrators notified the Norwich Police Department of an audio/video recording device – a cell phone – found by students in a girls locker room. Following a police investigation, Aikins was taken into custody at his residence the afternoon of June 2. A search warrant, requested by the Chenango County District Attorney’s Office, allowed police to continue their investigation at the residence and Aikins was subsequently charged.
In October, Aikins pleaded guilty to one count of second degree unlawful surveillance – a class E felony – in an agreed upon disposition with the DA’s office. Originally charged with four counts of felony unlawful surveillance, Aikins could have faced up to 16 years in state prison if found guilty by a jury of his peers.
First Assistant District Attorney Stephen Dunshee, who handled the Aikins case, said the former swim coach had violated the trust of his athletes, students, co-workers and the community as a whole. Those recorded via the cell phone, a number that has never been released, will “never trust again,” he added.
Said Dunshee, “The people are asking this court to send a message to any evil people out there ... this will not be tolerated.”
Perry Browne educator Joe Downey, whose wife, Amanda was a long-time friend and colleague of Aikins, spoke on behalf of the victims. According to Downey, if you had asked his wife, a girl’s swim coach at NHS, a year ago if Aikins was capable of a crime such as this, she would not have thought it possible. At first, he added, Aikins’ alleged actions were met with disbelief. In the months that followed, that disbelief turned to feelings of betrayal, anger and fear, he said.
“Even in our home, she could not escape,” said Downey, who asked the court to then consider how damaging Aikins’ crime was to the young girls – not yet adults – whose privacy was violated. It was, he added, weeks before his wife could make her way back to the pool; months before she could enter the locker room. Aikins, said Downey, had admitted his guilt and should be held accountable for his actions.
“What he did was unacceptable,” he added.
Aikins’ attorney, Frank Revoir, said there was no question his client had engaged in conduct that was reprehensible, and neither he nor Aikins were offering any excuse or justification for the behavior. Aikins, he added, had been a recluse for the past 10 months, out of concern for the victims and the community.
“My client has been apologetic and remorseful,” added Revoir, something he asked the court to take into consideration.
An emotional Aikins also gave a brief statement, and said he wished to “take this moment today to apologize to each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.” The former coach and educator was forced to pause and collect himself several times while addressing the court, and admitted he had betrayed others’ trust as a faculty member, coach and mentor. He was, he said, “fully prepared” to accept his punishment and hoped that someday those he had hurt “might find a small place in your heart” to forgive him for his wrongdoing.
Judge Martin E. Smith, who presided over the sentencing, said he had no doubt Aikins was truly remorseful for his actions, but called his conduct “most troubling to this court.” Aikins had, he added, violated the trust of the entire community in “a most heinous fashion.” Smith disregarded statements previously submitted by Aikins that he had committed the crime solely to see if he could get away with it and because he was bored.
Said Smith, “I don’t buy that.”
The injuries Aikins had inflicted, he added, are “far more damaging” due to their psychological nature. Broken bones and cuts, said Smith, will heal over time.
“Your crime was against this entire community,” Smith added. And while Aikins had no previous record and had never been arrested before, there could “only be one sentence,” said Smith, moments before sending Aikins to state prison for the next one to three years.
The sentence, said Dunshee, is an appropriate one.
“The punishment fit the crime,” he added. “[Aikins] violated the trust of those girls and this is something they’ll have to live with the rest of their lives.”