Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ohio Coach Locked Up For Cheerleader Sexual Assault

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Former Gallia County wrestling coach Matthew Huck is going to prison for the sexual assault of a cheerleader at his home in August 2004. Huck entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors that allows him to maintain his innocence while acknowledging enough evidence exists to convict him. Huck's ex-wife, Paige Huck, is serving prison time for having sex with wrestlers Matthew coached. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy discusses the plea and new details with special prosecutor Mark Weaver in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Mark Weaver https://x.com/MarkRWeaverCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A former high school wrestling coach is going to prison for the sexual assault of a cheerleader. I have the latest on the case of Matt Huck out of Ohio and disturbing new details about the crimes. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

Matt Huck was once a trusted high school wrestling coach in Gallia County, Ohio. This is a small community in Southeast Ohio, and for years, the community had a secret. Prosecutors say Matt Huck and his wife, Paige Huck, were taking advantage of their positions at River Valley High School and their access to teenagers to have sex with them. This went on for years, for more than a decade. One of the special prosecutors in the case is going to join me here very shortly to talk about this plea agreement that Matt Huck agreed to and the case. He's going to share new details that are going to make your head absolutely spin. But just a quick recap on how we got to this point. Matt Huck was a wrestling coach and agriculture teacher in Gallia County until the beginning of the 2023-2024

school year. His now ex-wife, Paige Huck, was a substitute teacher and cheerleading coach at River Valley High School until she was permanently banned from school grounds in 2019. A federal civil lawsuit filed against the Hucks and Gallia County schools claimed school officials knew Paige Huck had sex with wrestlers that her husband coached and simply looked the other way. The suit claims in January of 2003 on an out-of-town wrestling trip, the Hucks watched porn with the wrestlers in a hotel room. Then later that year in November, the Hucks are accused of hosting a lock-in where they played pornography for the wrestlers, cheerleaders, and football players. The suit says that Paige Huck engaged in sexual intercourse

with numerous male students. Male students stood in a line and took turns having sex with Paige Huck in the bedroom while Coach Huck stood next to them and watched the sexual activity. Paige Huck having sex with students and Coach Huck watching all of this. Principal Jacobs simply said he would look into it. Now, after the cheerleaders made this report, the suit claims that they were bullied and harassed.

The lawsuit states, the report to Principal Jacobs is not even noted in the personnel files of Paige Huck or Coach Huck. In court documents, the Gallia County School District has acknowledged that there is no note in the personnel files. The lawsuit also included an allegation made against Matt Huck. In 2004, Plaintiff Jane Doe One was sexually assaulted by Coach Huck. This abuse occurred when plaintiff was a 16-year-old high school cheerleader. The abuse took place with the assistance and knowledge of his then-wife,

Paige Huck. Now, lawyers for the Gallia County School District deny in court documents that the school board was aware of any allegation of misconduct by the Hucks. The district had previously released a statement to the Columbus Dispatch saying the district was sickened by the Hucks. The district had previously released a statement to the Columbus Dispatch saying the district was sickened by the allegations. All children in our community have the right to be safe from predatory behavior. Gallia County families entrust us with the responsibility of educating and protecting their children, and the safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority. When prosecutors learned of the allegations made against Paige Huck, they filed criminal charges. And after that, a woman came forward who claimed that Matt Huck

sexually assaulted her when she was a high school cheerleader. Last year, Paige Huck pleaded guilty to sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and agreed to testify against her now ex-husband. Paige Huck is now serving that prison sentence. Then Matt Huck entered into an Alford plea to one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. An Alford plea is a type of plea that lets Huck maintain his innocence while acknowledging there is enough evidence out there that he would likely be convicted of a crime. This is the kind of case that makes me want to log on to Truthfinder.com to see what might come up. Truthfinder is one of the largest public record search services out there.

I searched for Matthew Huck and his name came back, but his criminal case doesn't yet appear in the criminal and track record search results. Truthfinder is really great because it will show you criminal and traffic records, a person's past and current addresses, phone numbers, and social media accounts. And the thing that I really love about it, you can see the sex offenders who live near you. So you can try it right now and get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix and start accessing information about almost anyone. So I want to bring in the special prosecutor on this case.

He is Mark Weaver, and we've talked with him before about it. So Mark, tell me a little bit about why you all decided that six years in prison was a reasonable sentence for Matthew Huck. His wife, Paige, who was going to testify against her ex-husband, got 10 years. As a prosecutor, I like to see maximum sentences. That's always my preference. But we talked with the victims, and I have to account for their concerns as well. Had we gone to trial, these people would have to recall details from 17, 18, 19, 20 years ago, subject themselves to cross-examination, and have the possibility of a hung jury or even an acquittal. And even if we got a conviction

in a trial, there could be years of appeals, which could lead to new trials. And so in talking with the victims, everyone agreed that some certainty, some prison time, and making sure that both of the Hucks are registered sex offenders, essentially for the rest of their lives, took a greater priority for us than rolling the dice, going to trial and hoping that we get acquittals and long sentences. I'm sorry, convictions and long sentences. The fear is you get acquittal and no sentence. We'd like to get a conviction and longer sentences, but there's a little bit of risk of a gamble in there. Now, Matt Huck, you know, what was interesting about this was the fact that you had

charged his wife, Paige, his ex-wife now, I should say, Paige Huck. And then the accuser, the victim in his case, you know, you didn't really have anything on him until she came forward after his ex-wife was charged. You have a good memory for this case. We charged the wife with her multiple sexual encounters with teens, some as young as 13, at least one as young as 13, others 14 and 15. And then a brave young woman, initials BL, came forward and reported that she had been a cheerleader at an inappropriate co-ed sleepover at the Huck household. And while she was sleeping on the floor, Matt Huck assaulted her sexually. But for her coming forward, we wouldn't have had that more serious charge on Matthew Huck. And that changed the entire

direction of this case. You know, he entered into a plea deal that was an Alford plea. This wasn't like Matt Huck walked into court and said, oh, you got me. You know, I'm guilty. I did it. You know, send me to prison, even though he did basically have to agree to go to prison. But, you know, for members of the public who don't understand what that is, lay that out for us, because I've covered some cases, probably a handful in my career, where a defendant entered into what to acknowledge that the evidence against him is strong and that he's very likely to be convicted is able to offer up that, if you will, owning up to the fact that it's going to happen, offer up that reality rather than say, I plead guilty. When a defendant pleads guilty, a judge will often say, are you pleading guilty because you are guilty or could you just want to get this over with?

And the judge expects the defendant to say, I am pleading guilty because I'm guilty. Matt Huck was not ready to do that, even though we had the evidence that I think could have convicted him. He was unwilling to own up to his own behavior. He remained silent in court, other than answering the judge's questions, offered no statement. Unlike his ex-wife, Paige, who admitted to it to investigators and admitted it to the judge, apologized for it, said it was the biggest mistake in her life, and she was hoping to change her life. Paige Huck was set to testify against Matt Huck. So she had some incriminating, what you believed was some information that would, you know, inculpate him in these crimes.

She had incriminating information on her ex-husband. So you could have taken this to trial. I could have. Now, they would have tried to argue marital privilege, which is evidentiary privilege. We had some good cases that would have maybe won on that. But it's a roll of the dice. Here's a fact that nobody else has known. And your viewers will be the first to hear it.

I couldn't talk about it before the case was over because of ethical rules. But one of the things that would have come out at trial was that while Paige Huck was having a threesome with two teenage boys in the midst of the act, her husband was texting her and asking her about it and asking her to describe what was happening at that moment. So without getting into too graphic details, let's just say she was rather busy in that moment trying to achieve all of those tasks at once. So while this threesome was going on, she's also has the presence of mind and has her cell phone with her and is texting her husband. One of the boys said there was a text exchange. I don't think it was a long text exchange where Madhawk essentially said, what are you doing right now?

And I'm not going to use the actual vulgar words that she described, but she described the sexual activity that was happening with these two boys. And then his response was something along the lines of that's hot. Don't get caught. So this would have been a key. Now, we didn't have the text because this happened, remember, 16, 17 years ago. So there was no law enforcement to go grab those texts. But one of the boys involved, who's now a man, would have testified that that's precisely what he saw during this sexual activity. There was a threesome with two teenage boys. Oh, gross. So, you know, a lot of people, and I was a little stunned when I read it, will say, well, you know, Paige owned up to it. She said, even though she was having sex with all these teenage boys, which is, you know, horrible and it's wrong and, you know, it's very disturbing because they were welcomed into the home as they were wrestlers or whatever that Matt Huck was coaching. So they will say, well, she owned up to it. She knew she was caught. She owned up to it.

She said it was a big mistake. You gave her 10 years and she was going to testify. This guy comes in and says, well, I'll do an Alford plea and he gets six. And he was involved as you said he was. So how do you square that? Yeah, in every case, I want maximum sentences for the people who broke the law. That's always my preference. But I have to weigh other things. The first thing I have to weigh is I don't have any physical evidence from 18 years ago to make my case. I just have the testimony and the memories of my victims. Number two is there's that potential marital privilege argument that

the defendant would have raised. And number three, I never know what a judge is going to do if we get a conviction. You just can't predict that. So the victims were completely fine with both of these sentences. Let's remember, Pagehawk is the one who over and over again had sex with these boys. Matt Huck didn't. He was complicit. He was a co-conspirator. But in her case, she was the one alone. He wasn't putting a gun to her head. He was often at work while this happened, repeatedly having sex with teenage boys who were wrestlers on this man's team. And so I think she deserved a longer sentence. The victims agreed. And under Ohio law, we have to, it's the right thing, but we have to take into account victims' considerations when we make negotiated plea offers. And now in a separate matter, there's still the civil suit. So we'll have to see how this plea agreement plays into that.

I'm assuming, you know, that bolsters the civil case. Yeah, I'm not involved in that lawsuit. My work and that of David Kelly, who was my co-special prosecutor in this matter, our work is done. The Huck matters are closed. There will be no appeals. That's why we get true closure for these victims. Any appeal would be dismissed very quickly because Matthew Huck agreed to this entire process and it was all done fairly by the judge. So if there's going to be a civil lawsuit, that'll be between the private attorney

for the victims and the people they're suing. But our work as special prosecutors is done. Did Matt Huck say anything at sentencing? No. The judge gave him an opportunity. I spoke. I handed up a letter from the victim, BL, about what this sentence means to her, so the judge could read that. And the judge gave the defendant, as is his right, an opportunity to talk. And he said nothing. He had some supporters in the courtroom, including his new wife. He had some supporters in the courtroom, including his new wife. He got married a few weeks ago, apparently. I found that out when I got to the sentencing. So there were some people cheering him on and not loudly, but encouraging him afterwards. But he did not offer up any apology, which should have been made,

acceptance of responsibility, which should have been made, or of responsibility, which should have been made, or even that he did anything wrong. And so he's going to do six years. I suppose he'll try to say that he's, you know, isn't guilty for some reason, but he'll do six years and he'll be a registered sex offender until he's 80 years old. Wow. Well, that is not a fun way to live. Mark Weaver, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Always good to be with you. Thank you. And just a quick update on that civil lawsuit that the Hucks are facing and that was filed against Gallia County Schools. It is scheduled for mediation. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.