FORMER WIRT TEACHER-COACH ENTERS PLEA IN ABUSE CASE

(03/07/2014)

Former Wirt County teacher and coach Lijiah Heiney, 36, has pled to charges he had an inappropriate relationship with a student in a plea entered before the Wirt County magistrate court. The court will return to session May 14 to rule on whether it will accept the plea agreement and decide on sentencing. Heiney, a math teacher and girls basketball coach at Wirt County High School, engaged in "willing sexual intercourse" with a 16-year-old female student in 2013, according to a complaint. Heiney resigned from Wirt County Schools. George Cosenza, Heiney's attorney, said Heiney entered an "Alford plea to two counts of sexual abuse in the first-degree carrying potential penalties of 1-5 years on each. There is a non-binding recommendation from the (Wirt County) Prosecuting Attorney that his sentences run consecutively, but be suspended for five years." Alford pleas allows the defendant to accept a sentence without admitting guilt. According to the plea, Heiney would be on home confinement for those five years and must register for life as a sex offender, also requiring him to forfeit his teaching license, prohibits him from having any contact with the student or her family and does not allow him to live in Wirt or Wood counties during the five years. "I'm hopeful the court will agree...It is my understanding that the investigating officer and the girl's family have agreed to the plea details," said Cosenza.

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