Ex-Napoleon girls' coach gets 3 years in prison

12/4/2006
BLADE STAFF

NAPOLEON Justin J. Blaney, a former Napoleon High School girls soccer coach who had sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl who played on an Archbold area soccer team he helped organize, was sentenced today in Henry County Common Pleas Court to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine plus court costs.

Blaney, 29, who most recently has been living in Wisconsin, was sent by Judge Keith Muehlfeld directly to the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio near Stryker to begin his time behind bars.

He could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay up to a $30,000 fine for his three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor from February, 2005 when he was 27. Henry County Prosecutor John Hanna had asked the judge to imprison Blaney for 12 years.

Blaney declined to address the court. His attorney, Gregory VanGunten, said an appeal will be filed in the case.

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