Ex-Heidelberg student convicted of taping rape of unconscious woman

11/24/2001

TIFFIN - A former Heidelberg College student has pleaded guilty to three counts of complicity to sexual battery for videotaping a man raping an unconscious woman in a dormitory room, authorities said.

Nelson J. Pixler, 20, of Defiance, who pleaded guilty at a hearing this week, could get up to four years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Michael P. Kelbley, Seneca County Prosecutor Ken Egbert, Jr., said.

The prosecutor said Pixler, who was a member of the Heidelberg wrestling team before his expulsion over his part in the assault, will be listed as a sexually oriented offender and be required to report his whereabouts to authorities for 10 years after his prison release.

As part of his plea agreement, Pixler was taken immediately into custody and is being held in the Seneca County jail until his sentencing.

According to authorities, Pixler was a freshman at Heidelberg in November, 1999, when he encouraged Nicholas R. Klingler, 21, of Circleville, Ohio, to commit the assault on visiting Bowling Green State University coed who had passed out. The videotape was played for other male students in the King Hall dormitory.

Klingler, a former linebacker on Heidelberg's football team, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery and was sentenced in July to four years in prison. Klingler, who had agreed to testify against Pixler, also was designated as a sexually oriented offender.

“College students who participate in sexual assaults, whether on or off campus, must understand there will be serious consequences for their criminal behavior,” Mr. Egbert said in a news release.