Batavia sex offender pleads guilty in coaching case

A Batavia sex offender pleaded guilty Wednesday to being present in a park when children younger than 18, other than his own, were present.

Jeffrey Wiedemann, 37, of the 800 block of First Street, entered the cold plea with Judge T. Jordan Gallagher. A cold plea is one made without any agreement as to the sentence.

Wiedemann remains free on bond until his Jan. 26 sentencing hearing.

The crime is a Class 4 felony, so Wiedemann faces the possibility of one to three years in prison, a year of mandatory supervised release and a fine of up to $25,000.

The charge stems from Wiedemann coaching his son's baseball team in August. The team of 8- and- 9-year-olds played in Batavia Youth Baseball's fall league.

He coached four practices before league officials removed him, after another coach notified them of Wiedemann's status as a registered sex offender. The league's practice was to conduct its own criminal background checks on all applicants for coaching positions. Normally it would have been done before practices began, but a “conflict in scheduling” among volunteer league officials delayed it, Ken Clingen, a league director and its counsel, said in August. The league has since hired the Batavia Park District to run the checks, because the district has workers available more often to do so.

Wiedemann was also charged with working, managing or volunteering at a facility providing programs or services exclusively directed to people younger than 18, excluding his own child, another Class 4 felony. Those charges are likely to be dismissed, but the assistant state's attorney in charge of the case was not in court Wednesday and the prosecutor filling in for her did not have the authority to dismiss that charge on her behalf.

Wiedemann pleaded guilty in 2007 to possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 30 months of probation, which he completed.