In one of the most disturbing and violating incidents in recent memory, a longtime high school cross country coach pleaded guilty to a raft of sex crimes, including attempted sexual exploitation of minors and possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit situations.
The charges against him stemmed from allegations that he illicitly videotaped female student athletes going to the restroom and in “various states of undress” with the use of a hidden camera.
As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and St. Louis CBS affiliate KFVS, among other outlets, Going spent multiple years as the head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach at Fairfield Community High, where the 43-year-old was also a math teacher. The coach allegedly placed one hidden camera in a toilet in the girls locker room at Fairfield High, and then repeated the trick at a Super 8 motel in Fairview Heights, Ill., where the Fairfield High cross country team was staying while traveling to a meet. He later admitted to also installing a hidden camera in a hotel room in Pontoon Beach, again for another traveling meet.
The now-former coach has admitted his guilt and will be sentenced in early January 2015 in East St. Louis, Ill. He could be sentenced to 10 years in prison with an additional five years to life spent as part of a supervised release plan, with a fine of up to $250,000 likely for his crime.
All of that seems fitting for a man who so ably and willingly subverted the law in the most disturbing and exploitative way to violate the trust of his own student athletes.