A former high school football coach who won two state titles and was honored as a top coach was sentenced Tuesday to 6 months in jail for molesting a student.
John Titus, 55, pleaded no contest to one count of felony sexual assault of a student for improperly touching a 16-year-old girl dressed in gym clothes on the buttocks in 1997 at Columbus High School. Besides jail time, Titus also was sentenced to 5 years of probation.
Two more serious charges of second-degree sexual assault involving allegations of fondling a student’s breast and squeezing another girl’s buttocks while hugging her were dropped in a plea bargain, Columbia County District Atty. Tim Henney said.
Both were water girls for the football team, Henney said.
“The victims were just not anxious to have a trial,” the prosecutor said about terms of the plea bargain. “One of the goals was to resolve this case without requiring the victims to be victimized a second time by having to testify.”
Circuit Judge Lewis Charles ordered that Titus go through a sex-offender treatment program and register as a sex offender.
Titus had been a chemistry, math and science teacher with the Columbus school district for about 28 years. During 21 seasons as a football coach, he led Columbus to seven successive conference titles and state titles in 1990 and 1996. In 1996, he was voted the Associated Press’ State Coach of the Year.
