Hamilton County District Attorney drops charges against Ooltewah High School assistant basketball coach

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 2/15/16. Defendants appear before Judge Robert Philyaw during a preliminary hearing for the Ooltewah High School basketball coaches and the school's athletic director in Hamilton County Juvenile Court on February 15, 2016. Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston charged head coach Andre "Tank" Montgomery, assistant coach Karl Williams and Athletic Director Allard "Jesse" Nayadley with failing to report child abuse or suspected child sexual abuse in connection with the rape of an Ooltewah High School freshman by his basketball teammates Dec. 22, 2015.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 2/15/16. Defendants appear before Judge Robert Philyaw during a preliminary hearing for the Ooltewah High School basketball coaches and the school's athletic director in Hamilton County Juvenile Court on February 15, 2016. Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston charged head coach Andre "Tank" Montgomery, assistant coach Karl Williams and Athletic Director Allard "Jesse" Nayadley with failing to report child abuse or suspected child sexual abuse in connection with the rape of an Ooltewah High School freshman by his basketball teammates Dec. 22, 2015.
photo Karl Williams

Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston has dropped the charge of failing to report child sexual abuse against Karl Williams, a volunteer-assistant basketball coach at Ooltewah High School.

Williams was charged in connection with the alleged rape of an Ooltewah High School freshman by three of his teammates during the team's trip to Gatlinburg, Tenn., just days before Christmas.

The order of dismissal was filed in Hamilton County Criminal Court today, and says the charges are dismissed against Williams because he "was not provided any training regarding the mandatory reporting law."

Williams' attorney, Johnny Houston, did not immediately return request for comment Wednesday morning.

Williams was charged in January along with the Ooltewah High School's head basetball coach Andre "Tank" Montgomery and the school's Athletic Director Allard "Jesse" Nayadley for failing to report child sexual abuse or suspected child sexual abuse.

According to previous court testimony, none of the men reported the incident to the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, as required by law.

Last week, Montgomery was indicted on four counts of failing to report child sexual abuse by the Hamilton County Grand Jury.

Failure to report child sexual abuse is a Class A misdemeanor in Tennessee and carries a sentence of up to 11 months, 29 days behind bars. Montgomery is scheduled to appear before Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Don Poole on June 3 for his arraignment, during which he is expected to plead "guilty" or "not guilty" to the charges.

Nayadley's case took a different route earlier this month, as he appeared before Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz last week and accepted a pre-trial diversion. That means Nayadley agreed to skip a grand jury review and was granted pretrial diversion by Pinkston. If he completes 10 hours of community service, attends a course on reporting abuse and is well behaved, the charge will be erased from his record in 180 days.

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