STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - A former Ohio high school football player found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party two years ago returned to the field Tuesday with his old team. Ma'Lik Richmond played for Steubenville High School in a scrimmage against Cambridge, NBC station WTOV reported.
Richmond and fellow athlete Trent Mays were adjudicated delinquent in the August 2012 assault on a West Virginia girl. Richmond was sentenced to one year in juvenile detention and Mays, who was also found guilty of using his phone to take a naked picture of the underage girl, was sentenced to two years. Richmond, now 18, was classified as a Tier II sex offender last August, meaning he will have to register every six months for the next 20 years. The school's football coach, Reno Saccoccia, said Richmond returned to school in January and was suspended from extracurricular activities for the remainder of the year. He told the TV station "it was a horrible crime," but Richmond completed everything the judicial system asked of him. "We don't deal in death sentences for juvenile activity, and I just feel that he's earned a second chance," Saccoccia said. The case brought international attention to the city of 18,000 and led to allegations of a cover-up to protect the football team.