Dedrick Peterson, 31, of Ann Arbor, was sentenced to five years in prison Friday after he was found guilty on three counts of sexual battery relating to a sexual assault case stemming from Ohio University's 2013 Homecoming Weekend.
Peterson assaulted the survivor, whom he had known for several years, at a post-game party among friends also in the Marching 110.
Peterson was arrested in September following an investigation from the Athens Police Department that involved Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn's Sexual Assault Team, according to a previous Post report. The Michigan man was in the Marching 110 from 2009 to 2013, and was initially charged with 10 felonies: six counts of rape, three counts of sexual battery and one count of aggravated burglary.
The rape and aggravated burglary counts were first-degree felonies, while the sexual battery counts were of the third degree. Blackburn initially asked a judge in the Athens County Common Pleas Court for a sentence of 44 years in prison for Peterson, after his department found similar sexual assault cases from other states that allegedly involved Peterson.
Peterson's Athens-based attorney, Susan Gwinn, called Peterson a "victim of circumstances" at his October court date, and said that "media hype" surrounding sexual assault and what some describe as rape culture on OU's campus and in Athens put "pressure on the police, the prosecutor and various people saying they're not handling sexual assault cases right."
“Sadly, alcohol based sexual assaults are at epidemic levels on college campuses across the country. Today marks the second time this week an Athens County defendant has been sent to prison for an alcohol based sexual assault," Blackburn said in a news release Friday. "My office will aggressively pursue these investigations and work to bring justice to the issue.”
A sexual assault is considered sexual battery when the "offender knows that the other person's ability to appraise the nature of or control the other person's own conduct is substantially impaired," according to the Ohio Revised Code. For that felony level, prison terms can be as low as one year and as high as five.
According to a previous Post report, most sexual assault cases involving alcohol are considered to be sexual battery.
For the felony level to rise to a first-degree rape, according to the Ohio Revised Code, the offender has to "substantially impair the other person's judgment or control by administering any drug, intoxicant, or controlled substance to the other person surreptitiously or by force, threat of force, or deception." The minimum sentence for rape in Ohio is four years, while the maximum is 11.
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