Ex-Springboro teacher to appeal in sex crimes against students

Ex-Springboro teacher John Austin Hopkins has filed a notice to appeal after he was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Hopkins was sentenced on June 3 to eight years in prison for gross sexual imposition involving first-grade girls during gym classes in his first full-time year teaching in the local school district.

Judge Robert Peeler also designated Hopkins, 26, of Springboro, a Tier II sex offender during a three-hour sentencing hearing in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

During her statement at the sentencing, Hopkins’ mother, Lisa Hopkins, a veteran Springboro teacher, indicated there would be an appeal.

RELATED: Ex-Springboro teacher gets 8 years for sex crimes on 1st-grade girls

The notice to appeal was filed Wednesday by lawyer David Anthony Chicarelli, along with a motion to withdraw as Hopkins’ lawyer on the case in the 12th District Court of Appeals.

Chicarelli and his father, David Allen Chicarelli, represented Hopkins during the criminal case in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

“It appears to the court that the defendant is indigent and unable to employ counsel for the appeal,” Peeler said in an order Thursday.

Lawyer William Oswall was appointed to handle the appeal.

The elder Chicarelli is still listed as Hopkins’ lawyer in a federal lawsuit against Hopkins, the school district and administrators.

Hopkins was in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Reception Center in Orient.

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