Oakdale coach pleads no contest to rape of teen
A 45-year-old Oakdale man on Tuesday pleaded no contest to rape of an unconscious person for having sex with a 16-year-old girl after she fell asleep during a party last year at his home.
Defendant Timothy Lyman was the girl’s soccer coach. Police said he sexually assaulted the girl at the party, at which he provided alcohol to minors.
The judge sentenced Lyman to a year behind bars and three years of probation, according to Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees, who prosecuted the case. Lyman was taken into custody to serve his sentence as Tuesday’s hearing concluded.
The prosecutor said Lyman will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. During his probation, he will not be allowed to possess pornography or be in the company of minors, and he is required to participate in sex-offender counseling. The girl’s father read a written statement in court before Lyman was sentenced.
“Whoever would do this to a 16-year-old girl is just sick,” the girl’s father said, according to Rees. “This devastated my family. Lots of sleepless nights for my daughter. Sleepless nights for myself. It’s just sick. He deserves everything he gets.”
As part of Lyman’s plea deal, prosecutors dropped charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, unlawful sexual intercourse with an unconscious person and oral copulation of a minor. The prosecutors also dropped a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The girl is identified as “Jane Doe” in a criminal complaint filed with the court in January, a few days after Lyman was arrested.
Oakdale police investigators have said Lyman had sex with the teen Dec. 27 at the party at his home in the 1100 block of H Street in Oakdale.
At the conclusion of the defendant’s preliminary hearing in September, Judge Marie Silveira said in court that this apparently started as a typical holiday party at Lyman’s home, but that the party “turned into a very troubled event.”
The judge said the testimony indicated that Lyman furnished the alcohol at the party, but that some of the underage partygoers had consumed alcohol before arriving at the defendant’s home. She said the minors were drinking cocktails, some with vodka and some with rum, and they were drinking shots at one point. Lyman was the only adult at the party, authorities said.
The girl testified that she had consensual sex with a boy and stayed in the bed afterward, according to the judge. The girl testified that she fell asleep on the bed, but also testified that she passed out. The judge has said what the girl had done earlier that night does not mean a crime wasn’t committed.
The prosecutor argued that the girl was intoxicated when she fell asleep on the bed. The girl testified that she awoke to find Lyman having sex with her, according to the judge, and that the girl was awake and in a state of shock as Lyman performed oral sex on her.
This story was originally published November 12, 2013 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Oakdale coach pleads no contest to rape of teen."