By John Futty
The Columbus Dispatch
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ohio — A Franklin County judge sentenced a former deputy sheriff to 20 years in prison yesterday for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl whom he met on the Internet.
“This is best for the protection of the public and any little girls that are out there,” Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty said after sentencing Jeffrey A. Fisher.
Fisher, 39, of Sandbrook Lane in Hilliard, was a janitor at Hilliard Darby High School at the time of his arrest in May, but the girl was not a student there.
He pleaded guilty last month to four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and one count of attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.
Assistant County Prosecutor Casey Russo called Fisher “a predator who deserves to go to prison.” She said he lured the girl into a relationship by claiming he was 17.
Fisher’s wife and son caught him with the girl at a West Side motel. Investigators said he admitted to four sexual encounters with the girl and to taking nude pictures of her.
“The facts of this case were very disturbing,” Beatty said. “It is unfathomable that someone with a daughter could do this to someone else’s daughter.”
Fisher will be required to register as a sex offender when he is released from prison.
Defense attorney J. Scott Weisman asked the judge for leniency, saying his client “immediately took responsibility” for his actions and was so remorseful that he attempted suicide.
In a barely audible voice, Fisher apologized for his actions in court.
Fisher resigned from the school district after his arrest.
He was a deputy with the Franklin County sheriff’s office for nearly five years before resigning in 2005 when supervisors determined that he sexually harassed women and exposed himself to a jail nurse, employment records show.
He was not charged in those incidents, so a criminal-background check by the school district came back clean when he applied for a job there in 2007.
Copyright 2010 The Columbus Dispatch