Former PAC director pleads guilty to solicitation

The former Clark State Performing Arts Center executive director who was arrested in a prostitution sting in Dayton has pleaded guilty to solicitation.

Stuart Secttor’s 60-day in jail sentence was suspended by Judge Daniel G. Gehres in Dayton Municipal Court Wednesday. Instead, Secttor was ordered to be on supervised probation for one year and will have to attend the John School, which teaches men convicted of seeking sex for money about the risks they take and the damage they do to a community. He was also ordered to undergo HIV testing. A charge of possession of criminal tools was dropped as part of Secttor’s agreement to plead guilty to solicitation.

Secttor left work in Springfield on March 18 and went to Dayton to meet an undercover Dayton police officer whom he believed to be a prostitute. He told detectives that he used his work computer to browse prostitution advertisements on Backpage.com and had done so off and on for several years, according to a police report.

Following his arrest, Secttor was placed on paid administrative leave. Clark State administrators terminated his position for “gross misconduct” pursuant to its policies, and informed Secttor via letter on April 10.

During his tenure at Clark State, Secttor oversaw headlining performances by such big names as Rodney Atkins, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and LeAnn Rimes. He led the center throughout the addition of the Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center, which was completed in 2011. Secttor’s base salary was $91,179.06 as of August 2013.

A phone call to his attorney seeking comments Wednesday was not returned.

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