Springboro PE teacher sexual misconduct hearing centers on video surveillance

SPRINGBORO — A former Springboro physical education teacher accused of sexually abusing more than a dozen first grade girls in his gym class was back in court this afternoon.

Austin Hopkins was in Warren County Common Pleas court for a final pretrial hearing for gross sexual imposition charges.

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The hearing centered around hours of video evidence from inside the Clearcreek Elementary School gym where Hopkins taught.

The surveillance video could be a crucial piece of evidence at the trial.

Prosecutors said all Hopkins’ abuse was caught on the security video.

He’s accused of having inappropriate physical contact with 88 girls, and a grand jury said the contact he had with 28 of those kids was criminal.

But Hopkins’ defense attorney said it’s difficult to see what’s happening in the video.

“I can say that the images are grainy, it's dark. You can't entirely make out everything,” said David Chicarelli. “And from my review, I can't see any alleged criminal conduct.”

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A judge approved a motion from Chicarelli asking to have prosecutors enhance the video before trial.

The judge said the quality of the video has to be improved and they’ll have to zoom in on the clips before a jury sees them.

Prosecutors will also have to provide time stamps in the video with specific beginning and ending times of where they say the sexual misconduct is happening.

Prosecutors have six weeks to enhance the video before the next hearing on Oct. 15.

If they don’t think they can make that deadline and want an extension, they’ll need to let the judge know ahead of time.

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The judge also ruled that interviews the first grade girls did with children services as part of the investigation will be given to Hopkins’ lawyers.

However, only his lawyers and any experts they get for trial can see those videos. Hopkins is not allowed to see them.