Special Ed Teacher Raped Student in His Home: Cops

This story is as shocking as it gets. Newly released body cam video of a teacher being put under arrest for the rape of a student. This is a story about a breach of trust at the highest level. A special needs educator taking advantage of one of her students in his house on a snow day. Just wait until we explain the shocking moment. Police say this boy's mom realized she had a predator in her house. We're on the case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. This story has some really disturbing details. And I want to put you in the shoes of a woman in Sandusky, Ohio. She came home early from work one day. She had her stepdaughter with her. This was a snow day, so school was canceled. And she made the kind of decision to go to school. This was the kind of discovery that no parent would ever dream of. Frankly, a nightmare. A woman in your home with your teenager. This is video of the woman who was found in the home a day later after she was arrested. Her name is Christian Kobel. And she worked as a public school teacher's aide in a special needs classroom in Sandusky, Ohio. Now, I'll show you what Kobel was doing when police took her into custody here in just a moment. But I want to break down. What the court documents are telling us in this case. It's January 6th, 2025. Snow is on the ground in northern Ohio. And a woman comes home from work early because school was canceled. She has her stepdaughter with her. But when she walks into her house, police say she found her 15-year-old son being sexually abused by an adult woman. A woman who was in her mid-40s. Documents state, quote, Upon arrival, the woman advised her son is autistic, developmentally delayed, and in the ninth grade. Now, police say the unknown naked woman grabbed her belongings and she rushed out the door. And apparently she was moving so fast. She was in such a hurry that she didn't bother to put her clothes on. So she rushed to her car naked and fled. The mom said she had never seen this woman before in her life. But she had her phone with her. So she took pictures of that woman running naked to her car. And she was able to get a shot of her license plate, which she gave to police. Now, that woman. Was the teacher's aide, Christian Coble. And the victim in this case, according to court documents, told police that Coble was a teacher's aide in his special needs classroom for the last two years. And these are pictures we found on Facebook from Coble's wedding in 2022. And you'll hear her tell her husband that she loves him as she's taken away in just a moment. Now, the victim said he didn't ask for Coble to come over. And this is where the story goes from just shock. To being one that's pretty scary. He says that Coble allegedly just busted into his house through an unlocked door. And started sexually assaulting him. Quote, He told her to leave, but she did not. And instead pushed him into his bedroom and onto his bed. He told her to stop touching him and said that it was weird and he did not like it. He also said, quote, She has come to his home before when no one is home and told him that she passes by just to check if anyone is home. He said, This was the first time, though, that she's touched him. He also said that the two of them did not communicate on the phone or social media. That story, it's terrifying. The next day, police move in to take this teacher's aide and put her under arrest. And she seems to deny it. If you listen closely here, and she's already on the phone. When police get there with someone who's advising her to get a lawyer and not to say anything. They're arresting me. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Please keep your hands out of your pockets. No, we're not going to talk to them. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. They're taking my phone. Now, you can still hear the audio, but clearly the video has been redacted for privacy purposes. Investigators get Coble her shoes and then put her in cuffs. Hands behind your back. And then they're going to be able to see you. Watch your step. 31 70 corner. Bring it to the side. I'll have Kristen Coble in custody. Nothing in your pocket? No. Okay. Kristen Koppel. The officer then drives Koppel to the police station. This ride, it is quiet. It doesn't appear that she says anything. Remember, she was on the phone with somebody who told her not to talk. About a minute later, detectives come into the interview room with questions about what happened. And then if you could, could you just sign that, just acknowledging that your random warning hasn't read to you? Again, my name is Kenny Ark. I'm a detective here, and this is my partner, Matt Jacobs, okay? Kristen, would you like to talk to us and give us your side of what's going on? No, I want my lawyer. Your lawyer, you want to talk? You want to talk to us? Okay. All right. After being read her Miranda rights, Koppel invokes her right for a lawyer, as she was told on the phone to do, and she won't answer questions from detectives, and they leave. The officer then returns a couple minutes later to take her to jail. I hear you, Lester. All the way down. Okay. Kristen Koppel was charged with two counts of rape and two counts of sexual battery. In May of that year, a jury convicted her of those charges. This is video per WTOL television. And in June of that year, Koppel was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years in prison, and she could spend as much as 20 years in prison. And she also has to register as a Tier 3 sex offender, which in Ohio is for people who have been convicted of the most serious and violent sex crimes in the state. All right. Joining me now, attorney Chris Klotz, who represents victims of sexual abuse, partners with Aylstock, Wick, Increase, and Overhold. It's always great to have you on Law & Crime to, you know, talk about these cases. In this one, we have a little body cam video, but there's kind of this scene that's written out in the police documents about a mom walking in on truly a nightmare situation for her son who has special needs. If you're her defense attorney, like, where do you begin? Like, you get the phone call. You get a call from, you know, this suspect, and you start to learn some of the details of what police have. Like, what is, like, the beginning part of a defense process and something where it seems incredibly damning evidence that law enforcement has to do? Yeah. I mean, yeah. And hey, Chris, thanks for having me. I mean, in this case, I don't want to sound like a jerk when I say this, but if this comes to me as a criminal defense lawyer, I'm like, we've got to figure out how to mitigate your damages. And, you know, I would say take ownership. If you have been caught red-handed by the mom, you're running out naked from the house with your clothes in hand and speed off in your car, is, you know, the basic information that I have about what happened. You know, as a defense lawyer, you need to have a conversation with the client and say, hey, listen, you know what? This is not a good case for you to go to trial on. You need to figure out how to, you know, do the best you can to mitigate your damages. Because, I mean, this case is just over the top. I mean, over the top. Imagine as a parent, walking in your house on a snow day, and your child, who I understand was approximately 15-year-old, maybe special needs child, walking in there, and somebody who is a paraprofessional in the education industry is engaged in sex with your child. Oh, my goodness. I mean, it doesn't, you know, for a parent, it doesn't get, you know, much more shocking than that. And, you know, as a representative of the school system, The conduct doesn't get much worse than that. absolutely this case is just shocking and there's there's a lot that we don't know still even though that this was one where she she was convicted um reportedly according to local media by a jury like are you surprised at this because we we talk about a lot of these cases where typically there is some kind of plea deal because it's just uh the idea of of getting a result that would be in your favor in a case like this where it seems like there is just a mountain of evidence you're going up against we just see a lot of plea deals and then it just kind of goes in the system she ends up taking it to trial though presenting a case to the jury she is convicted and and now headed to at least 16 years in prison without knowing you know at this point the answer but like why would she take this to trial uh so i i didn't i haven't read any of the transcripts i would be very curious to know what the strategy was because the case from the facts that i'm aware of is a is an absolute slam dunk for the for the state attorney's office and you know frequently a defense lawyer a criminal defense lawyer will say to a client hey you know what there may be an opportunity for you to mitigate your sentence by going to the judge and saying hey your honor you know what this is a i was in a bad place in my life i've had a good you know you know track record i mean this lady you know um is you know i think what she was 46 year olds miss miss coble was 46 years old if she's never been in trouble you know you go to the judge and say hey listen um this is an aberration for me it was conduct that i've never happened i'm very regretful and remorseful for what happened um please let me plead guilty and uh beg for the court's mercy and um uh i don't know you know why that didn't happen in this case sometimes state attorneys if the case is severe enough would just say hey you know we're not going to offer you a plea bargain in this case because the conduct is so egregious so in this particular case knowing that the conduct is like you know very very egregious maybe they didn't offer her anything but still as a defense lawyer you're going to have a conversation you know with your client and say hey you know what you may be able to mitigate your damages or maybe get a lesser sentence if you accept responsibility for what's going on and the judge may hear you and decide to give you a lesser sentence it's hard without knowing a little bit more it's hard to know what the dynamics are but it doesn't get much more offensive um than this than this conduct i mean this is a slam dunk case with conduct that's just over the top with a almost 50 year old adult having some type of special needs child uh on a snow day when school is out it's just it's just about as wrong as wrong gets and it stood out to me too in the police report that the mom says like she had no idea who cobalt was like i had never seen her before um and then the son tells police that she was the the teaching aid in his class which again is a special needs classroom and that she had been to the house before you know if you're trying to mitigate the damage that she's you know going to get by going to prison like at the same time it's a special needs child and she's not going to it's not just like the offense itself which is as horrible as you can imagine but it seems like there is a pattern leading up to it um that would make it really hard to argue this case away if you can prove that she's been at the house before and the mom has no idea who this person is yeah and that's kind of segues into i know that there had been some uh in the press there had been some discussion that the family is uh the the survivor's family the young man's family has maybe a law firm that's already involved in representing them and looking at whether or not there's any type of civil justice that could be pursued in this case because if there's repeat um visits to this young man's house um there is probably some type of notice that the school has about you know something that's not right or doesn't feel right about this particular teacher or teacher's aid and if the school has notice about something weird that's going on and they don't take an opportunity to vet her conduct or her background or her proclivity to the degree that they can um and then you know that can put the school in a position where they should have taken action um and these types of cases don't usually happen in a vacuum usually when there's a teacher who's preying on on young children whether it's a man with you know or or a woman teacher you know there's usually some type of history there that that can be seen or perceived if the school is doing a good job so i mean you know i i think this young man and his family deserves somebody taking a look at whether or not there's any civil justice aspect to take a look at in this case and it's something that should be pursued but what you your question about you know the school and and you know whether they have knowledge or whether they had any you know inkling that something was going on there's almost always something that should have been picked up by an admission administration that's staying on top of their game well because i even think of um and we've seen this in other cases like if you're a teacher you have access to a lot of information about your students and i don't know if we want to live in the world where it's like completely cut off that a teacher has like access to information because we see cases where a teacher can identify abuse that's going on in the home or something like that um but at the same time it's like in this case like coble probably had access to the to the address um where this young man lived like probably knew a lot of things about him because she's you in his special needs classroom like from a civil side like how do you determine like where that wrong doing was done like is it somebody who might have seen i mean this is not specific to this case but more hypothetical question but it's like hey um teacher x has been looking up the home address of a particular student and then you find out they've been going to that address like is that the type of information that can open up a school district to uh being on the hook for some damages when it comes to a civil case yeah of course it can and you know it's so you know we can we can have a discussion another day about you know big brother you know watching what's going on you know and how much you know privacy there should be but within the school environment teachers accessing children's personal information is something that is probably being tracked already and if they had some type of you know um prompt that says sends a sends an email to one of the administrators and says hey you know what this teacher is looking at you know um material that's cordoned off or that's blocked off and not usually looked at and they get you know all they have all they have to do is say hey you know what why you know you know miss coble why were you you know why were you pulling you know up you know this child's you know information assuming that we're hypothetically speaking now i don't know if that happened or not but i mean there are mechanisms to that are not difficult to to look at things that should be anomalies and should be red flags to administration so yes um the answer to that is the those types of things it might give notice as to some type of access to information that should be private um yeah there there are ways to track that and kind of going back to the criminal side of it and the fact that this was something that went to trial and you know everybody has a right to a defense everybody has a right to see their case you know taken all the way through you know at the same time it costs a lot of money to go to trial you know can put someone in a really i don't know if this you know victim had to testify in open court like you can put people in incredibly traumatic situations and we see this not just in cases like this but a lot of cases where um you know testifying and having to face your accuser i mean that is incredibly scary stuff um how does you know even though it's your right to have a trial like how can that factor into a judge's mind where it's like it took us to get to a verdict for you to admit that you did what you did as opposed to potentially maybe there was you know i don't know if there's any sort of plea negotiations maybe there weren't um just how does all of that factor into what a judge decides for a punishment yeah so also an interesting dynamic that you bring up in this particular case because the mother actually saw the child with the perpetrator in this case i don't know if they had to call the child as a witness um because it's provable through documentary evidence that the child was underage um and because there's actually a live witness who saw the illegal conduct in this case um and i don't know whether they did or didn't but in this case it's not necessary perhaps to put the child um on the stand to testify could have been the mom who saw the illegal conduct and the mom with the birth child on whatever the birthday is that makes it you know that makes it a an age where there's where consent is not possible and also you know she's in a teacher's position in a position of trust many states have laws where um even if there even if there is a if there's an acceptable age gap that's not per se illegal um a teacher student relationship there are laws in some states that prevent that from ever being consensual and so you know in this in this particular case maybe the child didn't have to testify yeah you know it's just terrible every single time you hear you know that happening um coble when she gets out could be as as soon as 16 years you know she would be in her 60s i believe at that point late 50s 60s but you know could be a lot longer as well more than 20 years but she has to register as a tier three sex offender which is uh the highest level this is the most violent sex crimes people convicted of those kind of an on the spot question but like what does life look like for someone who has those types of actions i think it's probably and again i'm not saying this and with any degree of sympathy um because i i i do think that in cases like this where somebody has preyed on an underage child and on an underage child who is particularly vulnerable i don't have that much sympathy but does it make their lives hard does it make it hard to find a job yes you know is there anybody that wants to hire somebody who's a registered sex offender does it make it difficult to find a place to live yeah there's certain places you can't live do you have to does it make it hard to find a job or does it shut down your ability to travel usually you'll have to let your probation officer know if you're going to travel outside of the county or if you're going to spend the the night, you know, at a relative's house, two states over, do you have to get permission to do it? Yeah. But you know what? Don't have a huge amount of sympathy in these, in these particular cases. And if the person is genuinely a predator, they need to be, somebody needs to be keeping track of them. But yeah, it can, it can make somebody's life very difficult. Well, and I think too, I mean, you look at just like the bullet points of this story and it's like not just a teacher, it's a teacher who's taking advantage of someone who, according to the police report was on the autism spectrum, was a special needs student. You know, apparently she had been to the house like multiple times and then forces herself on this person. I mean, it's a traumatic situation. You know, the word predator is what you think about just with someone who's going to this house over and over and over again, but she ends up getting at least 16 years in prison. Really tough case. Chris Klotz, always great to have you on Law and Crime. Thanks for being with us. Yeah. Great to have, great to be here. Thanks, Chris. That will do it for On the Case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time. Subtitles by the Amara.org community