Married Ohio Superintendents Arrested On Multiple Child Rape Charges
Married Bellefontaine, Ohio, superintendents Heather and Patrick O’Donnell were arrested on child rape related charges earlier this week. The two superintendents have six children between them.
Patrick O’Donnell, 52, was arrested on a total of 14 child rape-related charges. The charges levied against the Bellefontaine, Ohio, superintendent pertained to a child younger than the age of 13 and included sexual battery and gross sexual imposition. Heather O’Donnell, 44, was arrested and taken into custody at the Logan County Jail on a related child endangerment charge.
Heather O’Donnell is the superintendent of Midwest Regional Educational Service Center. Patrick O’Donnell is the superintendent of Indian Lakes Schools.
Patrick O’Donnell has been accused of raping a young girl three separate times over the course of the last three years. The little girl was only 10 when the child sexual assault allegedly began. The unidentified girl told Heather O’Donnell about the rapes, but the Ohio superintendent failed to report her claims to the police, according to a report by the Springfield News-Sun.
Heather O’Donnell’s husband Patrick O’Donnell pictures,sexually abused a 10-year-old girl https://t.co/PeXIuejFsB pic.twitter.com/Ea79DT9eEB
— infowe (@infowe) July 13, 2017
Why the alleged child rape victim chose to inform the wife of the accused the sexual abuser has not been shared with the public. Heather O’Donnell has four children, two boys, and two girls from a previous marriage. The Indian Lakes Schools superintendent has two daughters. Bellefontaine law enforcement officials tasked with investigating the case have not yet stated the relationship the alleged child rape victim has with either of the two Ohio superintendents.
The arrest report indicates the alleged child sexual assault victim told Heather O’Donnell that her husband has inappropriately touched her in her “private parts.” Washington Township Police Chief Rick Core stated in his report that the victim said she reported Patrick O’Donnell’s behavior “several times” to his wife between 2013 and 2016.
Married Ohio Superintendents Arrested For Rape & Child Endangerment https://t.co/RcBml611Cl
— Xoobug???? (@xoobug) July 13, 2017
Heather O’Donnell confronted her husband about the child rape claims, according to a report by the Daily Mail. The Ohio superintendent allegedly downplayed the little girl’s sexual abuse claims and told his wife the physical contact he engaged in was merely innocent horseplay that occurred while wrestling around with the child.
Indian Lakes Schools placed Patrick O’Donnell on unpaid administrative leave after learning of his arrest on child rape charges and have reportedly taken steps to terminate his employment.
What action, if any, the Midwest Regional Educational Service Center took against Heather O’Donnell remains unclear. How the child rape charges ultimately came to the attention of Bellefontaine police officers has not yet been revealed.
[Featured Image by Ozgur_ora/Shutterstock]
