Ex-Doniphan coach to stand trial

DONIPHAN, Mo. --The former head coach of the Doniphan varsity basketball team on Wednesday was ordered to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting a female student on school property.

Raymond R. Stewart III appeared before Associate Circuit Judge Thomas Swindle for a preliminary hearing.

After hearing testimony from two witnesses, including Stewart's alleged victim, Swindle found probable cause to bind the 38-year-old Fisk, Mo., man over to stand trial on felony second-degree statutory rape and felony of sexual contact with a student by a teacher.

Swindle ordered Stewart to appear at 9 a.m. April 1 before Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett for arraignment on the charges.

In her testimony, Stewart's alleged victim, now 16, answered affirmatively when Ripley County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Miller asked whether she had an "encounter" with Stewart around Oct. 8 in a school gymnasium area.

The teen, who was an injured member of the girl's basketball team, confirmed she was not the only one in the gym that day. Other students, she said, as well as Stewart and coach Erika Smith, also were there.

The teen said she asked Stewart to assist her in getting ice from the "ice room" for her knee, something she regularly did, as she had to "put weights on it and put ice on it to get it to straighten out."

The ice, she said, was kept in a locked room, which was accessed by going through a hallway and the weight room and in what she described as a "closet."

The teen said Stewart, Smith, and coach Jimbo Blackwell, had keys to the room.

The teen described the other students/staff as being "pretty far [away] because they were all out in the gym" when Stewart accompanied her to get ice.

Upon entering the room, "we went to the ice chest to get the ice, and we were just talking … [about] basketball and my knee surgery," the teen said.

As Stewart was retrieving a bag of ice, the teen alleges the former coach kissed her on the lips.

"Had he ever kissed you before that?" Miller asked.

Answering no, the teen said she was shocked by Stewart's alleged actions.

"That's whenever I started backing up and then he asked me to remove my pants," the teen said. "[I] stood there, and then he picked me up and put me on the freezer and pulled me towards him."

The teen alleged Stewart forcibly disrobed her, and then sexually assaulted her.

After the alleged assault, the teen said, she "started to leave, and he told me to stop … I just turned around and looked at him, and he told me not to tell anybody. … He told me that if I told … he would deny it … ."

The teen said she returned to class and told no one that day about what allegedly had happened.

She confirmed she later told a friend about what Miller described as "sexual contact that really wasn't as far as sexual intercourse."

"When you first told somebody about it, why didn't you tell the entire story rather than just part of it?" Miller asked.

"I was really scared at first," she said, "but then whenever I talked to my friend … she said don't be scared, just tell them the truth, and she said that it is practically rape, and it was, and so I told."

The teen confirmed she later spoke to law enforcement and counselors.

On cross-examination, Stewart's attorney Sam Spain questioned the teen about her knee surgery, as well as her recovery, including physical therapy.

The teen confirmed the physical therapist had told her to ice her knee, as well as put weights on it to straighten it out. The icing, she said, was "pretty much" done on a daily basis, and sometimes, more than once a day.

Second- or third-hour classes, as well as sometimes fifth hour, were the times, the teen said, she would ice her knee. Physical education classes, she confirmed, were being held in the gym during those class hours.

Before that day in October, she said, Stewart had never gone with her to get ice, as she usually was accompanied by Blackwell, Smith or another member of the girl's basketball team.

Stewart previously had gone with her to get a weight, she said.

Spain also asked the teen about the pain medication she took after surgery, as well as any mental-health counseling or treatment she has had.

The teen said she didn't have any counseling until earlier this year.

Spain questioned the teen about the boyfriend she was seeing in October, as well as the boys she previously had dated.

Further, Spain asked about the day of the alleged incident, which she reported occurred near the beginning of third hour.

"I had been sitting in the chair," the girl said. "… [The teacher] could tell I was really uncomfortable."

The teacher asked whether she needed ice and then let her go get it, the alleged victim said.

She said when she entered the gym Stewart, who was teaching a physical education class, was the only one there with a key to the ice room.

Stewart, she said, unlocked and opened the door, then closed it.

Spain then questioned the teen about what transpired leading up to, as well as after, the alleged assault.

The teen said she was "right by the door" when Stewart allegedly told her not tell anyone what had happened.

Further, the teen said, she left the room by herself without the ice, but did get a weighted plate from the weight room before returning to class

" … [S]ince I was hurrying, I grabbed the wrong weight, and [her teacher] told me I needed to go back, and I told her no …," the girl said, who described it as a 25-pound weight, not the usual 3- or 5-pound one.

"When this incident was occurring -- he kissed you, he pulled your pants down, he did this act as you've described it. At any time, did you resist this act?" Spain asked.

The teen said she pulled back when Stewart allegedly kissed her, but "after that, I didn't know what to do. … I didn't say anything."

Before that time, the teen said, she thought Stewart was one of the "cool teachers."

Stewart, she said, had called her "his wifey."

On one occasion, the teen said, she and a friend were walking in the gym when Stewart allegedly told her she looked beautiful.

Having not brushed her hair and with no make up on, the teen said, she told Stewart not to lie.

"He said, 'Well, I know what you look like when you wake up in the morning,'" she said.

The teen denied calling Stewart "Coachie Poo," as well as referring to herself as his future wife. She confirmed she liked him "as a teacher" and wasn't afraid of him; however, "some of the things he said would creep me out … ."

The teen confirmed she quit going to the gym, as well as getting ice for herself after the alleged assault. Someone else, she said, now gets the ice for her.

Spain asked whether the teen left notes for Stewart on his bulletin board, specifically one in December, which said: "Hey, Coachie Poo, I love you, from your future wife … ."

The teen said she had left notes, but denied leaving that note.

" … I wrote a mean one before, and he said I should write something nice, so I did, and I put I love crutches because I was on crutches," the teen said. Both notes, she said, were left before the alleged incident.

It was "awhile" before she told a friend about what allegedly had happened, she said.

" … I was just too scared … then I finally told her," she said. " … I told her kind of the truth, but I didn't tell her everything …"

Another friend, she said, asked, and "I kind of told her, but I didn't tell her everything. … she [was] always with me … whenever [Stewart] would say or make comments towards me, and she would always ask me why does he say stuff like that, and I said I don't know …"

A third friend, the teen said, had told her Stewart allegedly was "saying this stuff" to her.

" … I didn't tell her at all [about] anything that had gone on, but I told her not to go in there [the gym] … I just said because it is bad, bad stuff will happen," the witness said.

Eventually, the teen said, she told her father and stepmother, who were "just kind of shocked," then subsequently called Doniphan Police patrolman Brian Walker.

The teen confirmed she initially only told her parents and Walker about the alleged kissing and fondling.

When asked why she came forward in January, the teen said she and a friend had been talking, and the friend or "somebody had talked to one of the teachers about it, and she told me I need to … go ahead and tell."

The teen said in her initial written statement she did not say anything about the alleged sexual intercourse having occurred.

She said she later provided a second written statement, which included that information, as did her second interview with Walker and counselors.

Ron McCutcheon, the Doniphan High School principal, testified Stewart, who was a certified teacher, was hired June 23, 2010, by the district and his employment was terminated Jan. 28.

Pertinent address:

Doniphan, Mo.