After two days of testimony in a bench trial in April, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Dennis Adkins found Cassel guilty of one fifth-degree felony count of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance. The sentencing range for the crime was from probation to 12 months in prison.
Cassel also was ordered to register as a Tier I sex offender, to be assessed for possible sexual offender treatment, not to associate with anyone under the age of 18 and to pay court costs and a fine.
Neither Cassel, his attorney Terry Lewis nor prosecutors addressed the court during Wednesday’s sentencing.
“It is the position of the state that Cassel is not an appropriate candidate for community control sanctions based on the fact that he has not shown through any of the court proceedings any remorse or regret for his actions,” assistant prosecutors Johnna Shia and Alissa Schriner wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“When we found out that his ex-wife told people what she saw on his computer, he started to set up his ploy of being an artist: He dusted off the cobwebs of the easel his ex-wife bought, sketched numerous photos and posted on Facebook that he was starting to draw again — even though he hadn’t sketched a thing in over six years.”
Lewis said earlier this spring that it was “insane” his client was found guilty for having images that he compared to photos of nude children in the Library of Congress, paintings in the Sistine Chapel and to the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1972 photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl after a napalm attack.
Prosecutors asked the judge that if Cassel wasn’t given a prison term that he serve 180 days of local incarceration.
“With his lack of accepting responsibility,” prosecutors wrote, “Cassel is an exceedingly dangerous individual.”
Cassel, who taught art at Fairview Elementary from 1972 until 1997, is the second former DPS teacher to face child pornography charges this spring.
William Foreman, 70, was indicted on two federal counts of receiving and possessing pictures of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Foreman, who told police he wrote “fantasy” stories about child sex, is awaiting a trial date.
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