STARKVILLE — A former Starkville High School coach and teacher will now have to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty Monday in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court to inappropriately touching a student.
Randy Carlisle, 50, accepted a plea deal before his case was set for a jury trial this week. In addition to being declared a sex offender, he received five years probation. Judge Michelle Easterling also fined Carlisle $2,500, according to a press release from 16th Circuit District Attorney Scott Colom’s office.
“He was guilty,” Colom told The Dispatch after Carlisle’s plea. “People who are guilty often plead guilty. He was on the verge of trial and didn’t have any more options to avoid it, I think that was also a factor.”
Carlisle, a longtime teacher with the school district, was charged for rubbing a 17-year-old female student’s buttocks in a lustful manner while hugging her in May 2022, Colom’s press release said. He was dismissed from SHS in August of that year and indicted in May 2023.
The student provided the DA’s office with text messages from Carlisle where he made inappropriate comments for a teacher about her appearance and wanting to do things with her outside the normal relationship between a student and teacher, the press release said.
“She was prepared to testify,” Colom said of the victim. “… Our evidence was going to be the victim’s testimony and some text messages he sent her phone that we believe showed he was attempting to groom her.”
Colom said the plea deal was also heavily influenced by the victim’s input, who wanted to prioritize Carlisle’s entry into the sex offender registry.
“In these situations you try to prioritize what the victim wants,” he said. “She told us her priority was that he’d have to register as a sex offender so he would not be able to prey on any other young people like her again. … She recommended that we offer this plea to him.”
Carlisle’s attorney Rod Ray did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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