The Iowa Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of a former Davis County Community School District coach who had sex with a student. Patrick Nicoletto was an assistant girls’ basketball coach from 2007 to 2009. He had a sexual relationship with a member of the Davis County varsity team that started when she was 16. A jury convicted him of sexual exploitation by a school employee and he was given a five-year prison sentence. Nicoletto had a coaching authorization, but worked nights at a local manufacturing company and was not a teacher.

He appealed his conviction saying he is not a licensed professional could not be charged under the exploitation law. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in his favor, saying a coach who holds a teaching or other professional license is clearly subject to the sexual exploitation law — but someone holding only a coaching authorization without a professional license is not. They reversed Nicoletto’s conviction.

Justice Thomas Waterman wrote a dissent to the ruling, saying the “hypertechnical interpretation” opens a gaping loophole in the law that was enacted to protect students from sexual exploitation by adults at their school. Justice Edward Mansfield also signed on to Waterman’s dissent.

(Radio Iowa)