Former St. Patrick’s Athletic Director sentenced to probation and time served
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Christopher Charles Chell, 46, a former Athletic Director and Physical Education teacher at St. Patrick’s Interparish School, has been sentenced on two of the original 20 charges related to improper relationships with juvenile girls at the school; after Chell entered a plea of nolo contendere to battery with a prior conviction and soliciting a romantic relationship as an authority figure, Judge David Kreider ordered adjudication of guilt withheld and sentenced him to 195 days in jail with credit for 195 days served, followed by five years of probation. The remaining charges were dropped.
Chell, the Athletic Director and a Physical Education teacher at the school, was initially arrested on March 7 after a middle school student reported that Chell had initiated a romantic relationship with her. Additional charges alleged that Chell engaged in inappropriate behavior with at least five juvenile victims. He was originally charged with 10 counts of lewd/lascivious behavior on a child between 12 and 16 years old, and additional charges were filed via sworn complaint: five counts of solicitation of lewd conduct with a student by an authority figure, lewd/lascivious molestation of a child between 12 and 16 years of age, solicitation of a romantic relationship with a student by an authority figure, and child abuse without great bodily harm. Chell was never booked on some of the charges, and all but two were later dropped. He was held without bail until the case was resolved today.
Our full report on the case is available here.
Chell’s plea agreement states that the maximum sentence for the two charges is 20 years in state prison, but under the agreement, adjudication of guilt was withheld and he was sentenced to 195 days in jail with credit for 195 days served, followed by five years of probation with no early termination. Additional conditions require no contact with the victims in the two cases, obtaining a psycho-sexual evaluation and following the recommended treatment, relinquishing his teaching certifications, and paying court costs and costs of prosecution.
Assistant Principal Ryan Clemens was also arrested for failing to report what he knew about Chell’s relationships with students, but all charges against Clemens were later dropped.
Unacceptable
Unbelievable!
I’ve heard justice is blind but I didn’t think it was stupid.
Wonder who has their hand on those scales?
Kreider is wrong to agree to this crap. Not right, not acceptable.
The judge is David Kreider and the DA is Brian Kramer. They both need to be kicked out at the next election.
Kramer is up for reelection.
Does anyone expect that the Democrat running against Kramer will be any better? How can our choices be so awful???
Of course he won’t be better than Kramer – he is a Democrat who will prioritize social justice over… justice. He will be more concerned about criminals than their victims. The time to replace Kramer was during the primary; anyone who thinks that voting Kramer out in November will make things better should think carefully about his opponent.
Who is his opponent?.
🛑 Gainesville Against Tyranny is on It 🛑.
Another drag queen grooming kids
Hardly.
actually this was a cisgender, straight, white male. hope this helps.
Drag queens aren’t trans, honey.
This is an abomination of a plea deal and does nothing to punish him or protect our society from a predator like him.
Everyone who agreed to this should be ashamed of themselves.
They should forbid him from working around children, in any capacity.
Why would anyone disagree with Mr, Peabody’s statement that he shouldn’t be allowed to work around kids.
That’s completely ridiculous.
This man should not be handed such a harsh sentence. After all, as Gov Walz says: It takes 2 to tango.
This is an utter disgrace. Should be a shame on our judicial system in Alachua county / USA. This is completely ridiculous to see a pedophile get time served and probation. Its people locked away in prison for marijuana, yet this Pedo is walking out of jail with a smile on his face ready to prey on his next victim in “SECRET”. For the judge to be so soft on a pedophile makes me wonder if the judge may be one his self.
Why aren’t their psych screening tests to weed out adult applicants who are attracted to underage kids? How many 💩experts are in this field and things like this still happen?
Don’t 🤡experts want to solve the problem?
White Privilege at its FINEST
@ CantGetRight: Um…No!
There are countless examples in the AC and other outlets almost daily of non-whites who have been to prison like 10 or 15x before committing like their 45th felony, but still only getting a year or less. Plus who have had tons of prior charges dropped too.
So don’t even start with that BS!
Besides I guarantee you that about NO white person is ok with this guy getting off so light!
Something had to have gone wrong with the case (weak prosecutor, victims parents shielding them from trauma of testifying…or something).
Liberal Wokey-ville is soft on crime- but it goes BOTH ways!
Big Money Attorneys with connnections in State attorney offices
That how it work in this circuit
This is absolutely unacceptable! You let him out, and it’s going to happen again and again. People like him don’t change their ways, or stop this behavior, ESPICALLY when they realize they’ve gotten away with it before. I can’t believe any judge would allow him to be out walking the streets. He isn’t going to care that he’s on probation… I’m willing to pay money that this man will end up back in jail for the same thing sooner than later.
I am disgusted!
So he does NOT have to register as a sex offender?
Wow, I guess we have to wait for the next child sex abuse charge against him. Unbelievable and unacceptable
Not even a felony conviction on his record. What an embarrassment our “justice” system is.
What a joke, No SeX Offender Probation. Don’t HaveTo Register? No Teaching Certicate but can still get a job around kids adjudication withheld,State
Attorney in cahoots with his Attorney by the way I wonder who’s his attorney ? Brian I thought all you Republican’s were law and order throw away the keys locked up kind of guys.You Definitely Lost My Vote. If this is not enough to vote him out I don’t know what is.
🛑 Keep this Article at All Cost 🛑.
This is disgustingly- we tell our children to tell us to then have the demon slapped on his hand- ughhh
🛑 I have Not seen this Story on That local News Channel, that TV 20 🤔.
Wow he got 6 months????? The privilege is REAL
Unfortunately, the case was always very weak. We all might think this creepy guy was probably grooming his students, but none of the things that he actually did crossed the line. Some of the things that he said, were close. It’s the totality of his behaviors that are very disturbing. However, I always thought, from the time of his arrest, that proving the charges beyond all doubt, was going to be very difficult. It turns out that I was right. I think the DA probably realized that it was unlikely to convince 12 jurors that this guy had actually done something illegal, so he struck a deal to end the case.
It’s not much help, but we have to remember that a founding principle of our country has always been that it is better to let a guilty person go than to imprison an innocent one. This applies, even to perverts, unfortunately.