Former St. Edward wrestling coach sent to prison for sexually abusing student-athletes

(Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

By Collin Cunningham

(CLEVELAND) Daniel Gonsor, a former wrestling coach at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, will be spending up to seven years in jail after a Cuyahoga County judge sentenced him on Thursday for sexually abusing minors while working at the all-boys Catholic school.

Per Cleveland.com, Gonsor. 32, is also a member of the Cleveland Division of Fire. The charges stem from a pattern of abuse that the Cleveland man exorcised upon two boys between 2015 and '19, beginning when the youths were only 15 years old and he was 27. It only stopped once the childrens' parents informed school administrators about what was happening.

“He made me feel like there was nothing in life outside wrestling, and I believed it,” one of the victims, who are both now between the ages of 20 and 22, explained during the trial.

The publication reports that Gonsor pleaded guilty in June, accepting the five counts of gross sexual imposition, two more of endangering children and three charges of corruption someone with drugs. As a result, Gonsor will find himself in prison for between five and seven-and-a-half years and will have to list any of his places of residence on the National Sex Offender Registry for 15 years.

“Every move he made in his life was meticulously planned out to satiate his desire,” one of the boys said at the sentencing hearing.

As part of a plea deal organized between Gonsor's attorneys and prosecutors, the former wrestling coach will not face additional charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual battery. The sentencing length also comes as the result of a compromise between lawyers for the victims and the accused.

He initially pleaded not guilty during his initial court appearance in Feb. 2020, when Cleveland.com reported that the part-time firefighter was being held on a $10,000 bond and had been suspended from the fire department without pay.

The drug charges are the result of the coach giving the boys Adderall to make them practice harder, eventually culminating in one of the boys becoming addicted to the amphetamine.

“I was supposed to be the adult and make better choices,” Gonsor said. “I failed at that.”

During his hearings, Gonsor and his attorneys told Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg that he himself had suffered physical and sexual trauma as a child, which later led to a struggle with drugs.

A man somehow related to the victims took the stand Thursday, referring to Gonsor as a "pedophile" and adding the following about the effect he's had on his son's life.

“There’s no shame, no disgrace, in being survivors of mental and sexual abuse,” he told Synenberg and the jury. “The shame and disgrace of sexual abuse is on Daniel Gonsor and no one else.”

Cleveland's fire department may choose to initiate its own disciplinary hearing against Gonsor

St. Edward Principal KC McKenna, who reported the abuse to the police along with other staff members when they became aware of it in late 2019, issued the following statement after Thursday's sentencing hearing:

“The crimes committed by Mr. Gonsor are deeply troubling, and we believe justice has been served with today’s sentencing. We are grateful to all who contributed to the investigation and legal work that led to this outcome."

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