Chad Willhoff was sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 13 after previously being found guilty by a jury related to unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Willhoff, 42, was charged back in the summer of 2020 with one felony county of gross sexual imposition, three felony counts of sexual battery, and six felony counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

After a five-day trial that started on March 21 concluded, a 12-person jury found Willhoff guilty on all 10 of those counts.

Through the trial, prosecutors set out to show that Willhoff groomed and sexually assaulted the victim from August 2002 through 2007 while the victim was a minor, and in addition, the sexual battery offenses are for incidents that occurred while the victim was a student/athlete at Bethel-Tate, and Willhoff in his capacity as a coach.

In an April 8 memorandum that both addressed Willhoff’s upcoming sentencing, and the merger question regarding the counts, Lara Baron, assistant county prosecutor, argued against the merger doctrine — which is something ostensibly favorable to a criminal defendant because instead of getting convicted on numerous charges related to the same incident, the charges are merged, and they are convicted on one charge (the more serious of the charges, with the lesser ones dropping out), according to Cornell Law School — by noting that each of the counts are distinct whether in time, place, action taken, or all of the above.

Baron was asking the Court for nothing less than a 15-year prison sentence, noting that Willhoff has a “long history of committing these types of predatory offenses and is therefore likely to commit them in the future.”

In weighing the risk of recidivism, the Court is allowed (unlike in the jury trial) to consider other cases pending against Willhoff.

Willhoff was charged in November 2020, with five counts of felony gross sexual imposition, and one felony count of rape. It is alleged that those offenses took place between 1994 and 1996, when Willhoff would have been between 15 and 17, and the victim less than 13-years-old.

Then in December 2020, Willhoff was charged with one felony count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and three felony charges of sexual battery. Those incidents are alleged to have occurred in 2007 and 2008 when the victim was 15, and occurred while Willhoff was in his capacity as a soccer coach at Bethel-Tate.

Baron argued that taken in totality, Willhoff has a “clear history of using his position to take advantage of vulnerable children.”

In addition to his position of trust as a youth sports coach at Bethel-Tate, Baron added that Willhoff was also an assistant youth group leader and deacon at Landmark Baptist Church in Batavia, and he used that position to ensure access to the victim.

Something Courts are allowed to consider in weighing a sentence is whether the offender shows genuine remorse for the offense. Baron argued that Willhoff has not; instead, in various jail calls after the conviction, he apparently said he does not agree with admitting to the offenses, but will say “what he needs to say to get less time in prison, and that the victim in this case should have thought about the effect her disclosure will have on him and his family.”

“Frankly, the Defendant preyed on the victim in this case,” Baron concluded. “He engaged in a pattern of grooming for years, working to normalize sexual conduct in the eyes of the victim. The Defendant was able to convince the victim that, although she was a child, she was in a relationship with the defendant, who was an adult.”

She continued, “He convinced the victim that he loved her and engaging in sexual conduct as a child with an adult was ordinary behavior.”

John O’Shea, defense attorney for Willhoff, in his pre-sentencing memorandum, argued for sentencing Willhoff to concurrent sentences rather than consecutively (serving the sentences at the same time versus serving them back-to-back).

O’Shea said Willhoff “considers his action to be serious and undeniably wrong.”

With respect to recidivism, which is the weighing factor on what kind of sentencing to impose, O’Shea said that prior to the present offense, Willhoff had no criminal records, doesn’t abuse drugs or alcohol, and is “genuinely remorseful for his conduct.”

Recidivism is also not likely to occur since Willhoff would be a convicted sex offender and will be required to register upon release, O’Shea said.

“Defendant faces the consequences of his own actions and will continue to do so far the remainder of his life,” he said, speaking to the question of punishing Willhoff. “Not only has he been publicly shamed in the media, but he also has been shamed in front of his children, mother, siblings, and friends.”

O’Shea mentioned that his wife has also filed for divorce from Willhoff, which she began those proceedings in April 2021.

Finally, O’Shea argued that due to Willhoff having two young children, an ailing mother, and three sisters he’s close with, a concurrent sentencing will “sufficiently punish defendant and allow him to get back to his children and mother who depend on him.”

Victim’s father at Willhoff sentencing: ‘My family has been destroyed.’

At the one-hour sentencing hearing before Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Alan Corbin, Baron and O’Shea; the victim’s father and mother; and Willhoff’s sister, spoke to the Court.

Documents not publicly available, but for which Corbin spoke to being part of his consideration included the victim’s impact statement, letters on behalf of the victim, and 17 letters in support of Willhoff, including from Willhoff’s mother, and his sister.

Baron indicated that the State will wait to have a hearing about Willhoff registering as sex offender until all of his cases concluded.

The victim’s father wanted to emphasize to the Court that what Willhoff did wasn’t a few incidents 18 years ago, but rather it was behavior up to the moment his daughter decided to press charges, he said.

“His actions were very erratic leading up to that point. At that point, as a family, we didn’t know what was going on. He seemed unhinged. He made a lot of statements that were kind of erratic about wanting to be a missionary, possibly doing this, changing careers, things like that,” the father said.

He said he fears for the safety of his daughters, both the one victimized, and the one married to him because of the way he was acting.

“My family has been destroyed. We used to have a close, loving family, but because of his actions, our family to this day is destroyed. It’s un-united, and I don’t know if it ever will get back together like it was,” he said.

The victim’s mother spoke next. She said in a phone call to her daughter, Willhoff told her, “You can get over this,” with an included offer to pay for her counseling. But the mother said, it was almost two decades of her life.

“I would like to see if two decades were taken away from his life, if he could get over that,” she said.

The mother was also a victim of child abuse when she was a child, so she said she knows her daughter will be dealing with this for the rest of her life.

“This isn’t about what happened to me; this is about justice for my daughter,” she added.

Baron added to her pre-sentencing memorandum, that it’s “extremely concerning” to the State that Willhoff refers to his actions as “an affair.”

“That he can offend against a 12-year-old, offend against a 14-year-old, a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old — that he can look at that and convince himself that that was only inappropriate because he was married to someone else at the time,” she said.

Willhoff’s sister spoke next, saying that he’s nothing like the internet has portrayed him to be. She said he’s respectful, sweet, kind-hearted, and genuine. She also talked about how Willhoff took care of their father 11 years ago when he was dying of brain cancer, and he’s now taking care of their ailing mother.

“Admittedly, he has made mistakes, and he’s owned up and taken responsibility for those,” she said, and since he’s been found guilty by a jury, punishment is expected. “Your honor, I’m here to ask you for leniency in his sentencing.”

Willhoff spoke in his defense next. He said he takes full responsibility for his charges, it was his fault alone, and is “deeply sorry and I apologize to [the victim] and her family for the pain that I have caused.”

He also apologized to his wife and two kids, family, and friends.

“I hope the people I have hurt will one day forgive me,” he said, and then he asked for mercy from the judge.

Corbin said he was going to impose consecutive sentences because they are necessary to protect the public from future crime, and to punish Willhoff.

The probation department in its pre-sentence investigation — they recommended consecutive sentences on counts one through four, and concurrent sentences on counts five through 10 — recommended a 12-year prison sentence.

Corbin sentenced Willhoff specifically as follows:

– On count one of gross sexual imposition: three years.

– On counts two, three, and four of sexual battery: three years, respectively, for nine years total.

– For counts one through four, Corbin said those are consecutive sentences.

– On count five of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor: three years.

– The three years for count five will run consecutive to counts one through four.

– On counts six, seven, eight, nine and 10, also for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor: Three years for each count, running concurrently with one another, and consectively with counts one through five.

Overall, then, Willhoff was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Corbin also ordered restitution in the amount of $5,386 paid to the victim for psychotherapy sessions she received in the past.

He said he gave his final determination a lot of thought, and based upon everything that he has received.