NEWARK, Ohio — A former Newark police officer pleaded guilty to two counts of sending inappropriate photos to two juveniles.
Steven Carles was a Newark police officer and served as a school resource officer for two years.
The former Newark officer was sentenced for inappropriately messaging teen girls, but he won't have to spend any time behind bars.
During his time as a school resource officer at the Career and Technology Education Center from 2021 to 2023, Carles was accused of sending two pictures and a video of himself to a 17-year-old girl.
He took an Alford plea, which means he doesn't accept responsibility for the charges but admits there's enough evidence against him to find him guilty.
“I think the judge was taking into consideration that he was not making these girls go through what would be a really traumatizing trial for them. The fact that he did not have a record and did not engage in any actual contact between himself and the girls, all of that was taken into consideration,” said Newark Law Director Tricia Moore.
A judge sentenced Carles to 180 days of jail time for each of the two charges, but those will only have to be served if he violates supervised release.
“We can sentence them to six months to a year, but if we are not addressing the problems about why they are doing these things, we are not helping them,” Moore explained.
He will also have to seek counseling.
“Try to get him the help he needs while keeping the victims safe and other girls in the age range safe,” Moore said.
Newark police put Carles on administrative leave after they learned of the allegations. He resigned in February.
As a part of the sentence, he is not to have unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, except for his child.
He has also coached teen girls softball in the past, which Moore says he may not be able to do anymore.
“Right now if he were to be coaching a softball team or something like that, I would report that to the probation department,” she said.
The law director says he won't be able to get the charges expunged or taken off his record.