RIPON (NBC 26) — Mihai Schnell-Harrison, a former Ripon High School coach, was convicted of sexual assault of student by school staff on Monday.
Schnell-Harrison, who the Ripon Area School District said had served one season as the school's boys varsity basketball coach at Ripon High School, was charged with several felony counts in Fond du Lac County in November of 2024.
Court records show the state and the defense reached a plea agreement. During a court hearing on Monday, the former coach pleaded no contest and was found guilty of sexual assault of student, exposing genitals to a child, causing mental harm to a child and child abuse.
Additional charges were dismissed, but read in to the record.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC 26, Schnell-Harrison and a 16-year-old student at Ripon High School were using the social media app Snapchat to communicate privately.
The victim stated that conversations began to escalate and "started to get rather graphic and sexual in nature," according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Schnell-Harrison attempted several times to get the victim to meet up with him at a hotel room, and in one occasion invited the victim over to his house for sexual intercourse. The victim did not feel safe accepting those invitations.
On November 6 of 2024, Schnell-Harrison and the victim allegedly had an encounter in the school parking lot, where they engaged in sexual activity, the complaint says.
Ripon High School's assistant principal and athletic director Vincent Proposon gave a statement included in the complaint: "[Schnell-Harrison] was in fact a school staff member and the basketball coach for Ripon High School Boy's Varsity team at the time of November 6, 2024."
Schnell-Harrison is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 19.
