State v. Covic

2012 Ohio 3633
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided August 13, 2012·No. 11CA0055-M·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

STATE OF OHIO ) IN THE COURT OF APPEALS )ss: NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COUNTY OF MEDINA )

STATE OF OHIO C.A. No. 11CA0055-M Appellee

v. APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT ENTERED IN THE

KELLY L. COVIC COURT OF COMMON PLEAS COUNTY OF MEDINA, OHIO

Appellant CASE No. 10-CR-0161

DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY Dated: August 13, 2012

DICKINSON, Judge.

INTRODUCTION

{¶1} Two middle school students in Brunswick accused their teacher, Kelly Covic, of inviting them to her house to play poker, drink alcohol, and engage in sexual conduct with her. A jury convicted her of one count of sexual battery and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Ms. Covic has appealed. This Court affirms because her convictions are supported by sufficient evidence, are not against the manifest weight of the evidence, and the State’s failure to provide additional details regarding the dates and times of the alleged conduct did not prejudice Ms. Covic’s ability to defend herself.

BACKGROUND

{¶2} Ms. Covic was indicted for three counts of sexual battery, two counts of endangering children, and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The sexual battery and contributing to the delinquency charges stemmed from allegations that Ms. Covic

invited groups of students to her house to drink alcohol and play poker late at night when her husband was not home. Two male students, J.H. and K.C., testified that, when they went to her house, Ms. Covic gave them alcohol and engaged in sexual conduct with them. The child endangering charges stemmed from allegations that Ms. Covic left her own young daughters home alone at night while she drove the students back to their homes.

{¶3} During the 2008-2009 school year, Ms. Covic was teaching a special program for at-risk kids at Edwards Middle School in Brunswick. She obtained permission from the principal to give out her personal cell phone number to her students so that she could stay in touch by text messaging regarding homework assignments and truancy issues. In August 2009, Ms. Covic received a series of text messages from J.H., a male student who had graduated from Edwards Middle School that spring.

{¶4} Via text message, J.H. demanded that Ms. Covic “leave 4000 dollars at hunington school in the next hour” or he would tell police that she had raped him. Over the next hour, J.H. repeatedly texted Ms. Covic similar threats about her going to prison if she did not give him the money he demanded. Ms. Covic testified that she called a neighbor who works as a police officer for advice on how to handle the situation. The police officer testified that he told her to photograph the text messages, file a report with her local police department, and contact her principal.

{¶5} Ms. Covic testified that she contacted her union representative the next morning regarding the texts from J.H. According to Ms. Covic, she followed the representative’s recommendation to leave the matter alone unless and until a formal complaint was filed against her. The police officer Ms. Covic told about the text messages also testified that Ms. Covic later

told him that J.H. had sent her a message via computer the next day apologizing for his texts as he had been “f’d up” the previous night.

{¶6} A couple of weeks later, the principal of Edwards Middle School, Kent Morgan, asked Ms. Covic to meet with him to discuss allegations that she had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a student. Mr. Morgan testified that a teacher told him in early August 2009 that Ms. Covic had received a series of texts from J.H. and had consulted the teachers’ union and police about them. Shortly thereafter, another teacher told Mr. Morgan that she had heard about something happening with Ms. Covic at an overnight party attended by several Edwards Middle School teachers at Catawba that summer. Mr. Morgan interviewed the other teachers who were at the party at Catawba and learned that Ms. Covic had admitted to them that she had done “something very wrong, or very inappropriate” with a student. When Mr. Morgan confronted Ms. Covic with that information, she told him that she had damaged her relationship with K.C., a former student, by going on a date with K.C.’s older brother despite the fact that she was married. Mr. Morgan interviewed various students, including K.C. and J.H., and later called the police.

{¶7} Lori Wagner, a teacher at Edwards Middle School, testified that she had been driving home with Ms. Covic from a party in early July 2009 when Ms. Covic began crying, asked her not to think less of her, and told her that she had done something horrible. According to Ms. Wagner, Ms. Covic said, “I did it with [K.C.].” They stopped at a bar to talk about it, and while there, Ms. Covic spent time on the phone texting and talking to K.C. about the fact that she had told Ms. Wagner that they had had sex. Ms. Wagner testified that Ms. Covic told her that K.C. was angry with her for telling Ms. Wagner. She said that Ms. Covic was crying and saying that “it felt . . . like a high school breakup.” Ms. Wagner also testified that Ms. Covic told her

that, if someone ever questioned her about her relationship with K.C., she would say “that this all happened with [K.C.]’s brother.”

{¶8} Ms. Wagner further testified that, two weeks after that conversation with Ms.

Covic, she and Ms. Covic went to Ms. Wagner’s trailer at Catawba for a girls’ night out with two other teachers from Edwards Middle School. She testified that she shared a couple of bottles of wine with Ms. Covic that evening and she does not remember details of the conversation. She recalled only that Ms. Covic mentioned K.C.’s name while the group was sitting together at the table.

{¶9} At trial, Ms. Young testified that she was among the teachers present at the party at Catawba when Ms. Covic tearfully admitted to doing “something very inappropriate.” According to her, Ms. Covic said, “I’ve slept with someone.” After hearing that, Ms. Young said that she was confused and “was kind of blacking out, like trying to figure it out myself.” Then she heard Ms. Dooling ask Ms. Covic if she was planning to tell her husband about it and Ms. Covic said, “No, I’m not going to tell Sonny. I would lose everything.” Ms. Young explained that she did not understand what was going on, she did not know the other teachers well, and she quickly left the table and went to bed.

{¶10} Janet Dooling identified herself as a close friend of Ms. Covic and her fellow teacher at Edwards Middle School. She testified that she was present at the party at Catawba. She said that everyone was drinking wine and margaritas and playing games when Ms. Covic looked tearfully at Ms. Wagner and said, “I think I should tell them.” According to Ms. Dooling, Ms. Covic told the group that she had “done something very inappropriate and please don’t think less of her.” Ms. Dooling testified that she “went blank” after that and she stopped processing what Ms. Covic was saying. She said that, although she had hoped that she had misunderstood, a

few minutes after they had left the table, Ms. Covic approached her and “told me that it didn’t work that well because he was so well-endowed, and she named [K.C.].”

{¶11} K.C. testified that he went to Ms. Covic’s house at least 30 times from May to August 2009. He said that he always took a friend with him to play poker and drink alcohol and that they would often stay at the Covic house all night. He also said that Ms. Covic had sex with him during his second visit to her house. J.H. testified that Ms. Covic invited him to her house to drink alcohol and play poker with his friends. He described four trips to her house and said that they engaged in sexual conduct on two of those occasions. He said that he always went to her house with one or more friends including J.S., T.S., and T.H. He also testified that he sent the text messages asking Ms. Covic for money just “for fun” because he wanted some money and thought she might give it to him.

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State v. Covic, 2012 Ohio 3633 (Ohio Ct. App. 2012).

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