Former Shawnee basketball coach sentenced to prison for sexting 17-year-old

SHAWNEE — A former Shawnee Public Schools assistant athletic director was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for sexting a teenager in 2021.

Ronald Gene Arthur, 53, was fined $3,500.

Pottawatomie County District Judge John Canavan imposed the sentence, after praising the witnesses who testified at trial last November about Arthur's sexual misconduct.

The judge said those witnesses showed an incredible amount of courage.

The judge also called "just ridiculous" any claim that Arthur was tried and convicted because of the media. "That just isn't so," he said.

Arthur was the boys' basketball coach for 16 seasons in Shawnee before stepping down in 2020. He resigned as assistant athletic director in 2021 after coming under investigation. He had held that position for six years.

More: 'I believe I am one of many': Witness speaks out against former Shawnee coach accused of misconduct

He worked at an Amazon delivery station in Oklahoma City after leaving Shawnee Public Schools. He has been in custody since his conviction in November.

A jury chose the punishment for Arthur after finding him guilty of the felony offense. Canavan pointed out in court Wednesday that he could not, by law, go higher than the five-year recommendation.

He could have suspended part of all of the sentence but didn't. The former coach's older brother, Michigan pastor Carl Arthur III, had asked for leniency.

"My brother is not a monster," the pastor said. "We've all made mistakes."

Arthur did not testify at his trial and did not give a statement Wednesday. He told the Oklahoma Department of Corrections he wanted to work again for Amazon, but in another state, if he got probation.

What happened during the trial

At trial, the victim testified he was 17 at the time of the sexting. He said they met up twice for oral sex after communicating over their cellphones through the Grindr app.

Prosecutors alleged the communications on Grindr began before the victim graduated from Shawnee High School. The first sexual encounter was days after graduation, according to testimony.

Arthur went by the user name "Older For Younger" on Grindr. "In person, he had me call him coach," the victim testified.

Arthur was convicted of engaging in communication for sexual or prurient interest with a minor by use of technology.

The law prohibits sexual communications over cellphones with anyone under 18 even though the age of consent for sex in Oklahoma is 16. The maximum punishment for that crime is 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The victim told his mother about Arthur in July 2021 after the second hookup at a dead-end road, according to testimony. She called the sheriff's office.

The mother praised her son's bravery in a statement read in court Wednesday by a victim/witness coordinator.

"He made it safe for countless others to come forward when they have been ashamed, ignored and silenced for over 20 years," the mother wrote in the statement. "He stopped your reign of terror, at least for a few years anyway and not long enough."

Four other students testified during the trial against Arthur, describing misconduct that dated back years.

Accusations of a cover-up surfaced early in the investigation and are central to a still pending federal lawsuit against the school district.

"People who were interested in protecting Ron Arthur did so at the expense of at least 10 victims that we're aware of," state Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, said after the verdict in November.

In court Wednesday, District Attorney Adam Panter called the actions of those who "turned their heads" and allowed it to happen egregious.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Former Shawnee basketball coach Ron Arthur stays silent at sentencing