Court denies appeal for ex-soccer coach

Hollingshead to remain registered as sexually violent predator

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday denied further appeal to a former Altoona Area School District assistant soccer coach, Kyla Hollingshead, who was convicted in 2013 of having romantic affairs with two players on her team.

Although Hollingshead, 31, entered pleas to one count each of corruption of minors and institutional sexual assault and completed a short prison term, she challenged her designation as a sexually violent predator under the former Megan's Law that requires her to periodically register with police.

Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan imposed a sentence of 60 days to 23.5 months, followed by 30 months' probation for the affairs Hollingshead had with a 15-year-old girl in 2010 and a 16-year-old girl in 2012.

According to information presented during the various hearings in the case, the young victims came forward to prevent the former assistant coach from preying on students in the future.

Following the guilty pleas, the judge ordered an evaluation by Pennsylvania's Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

In a hearing held in June 2014, a member of the board, Corrine Scheuneman, testified Hollingshead met the criteria as a sexually violent predator.

In January 2018, the defense filed a post-conviction petition challenging the designation and asking the Pennsylvania Superior Court to vacate the ruling and terminate or lessen the registration requirements.

That petition was dismissed by Sullivan as untimely on April 19, 2018.

His decision was upheld by the Superior Court in June 2019.

The defense then filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court requesting its review of the predator ruling, but on Tuesday, the state's highest court denied further review.

Registration of sexual predators in Pennsylvania has become a complex subject.

Hollingshead was originally designated as a predator under Pennsylvania's Megan's Law.

That law governing registration was replaced by the Sexual Offenders Notification Act that more closely followed federal registration criteria.

However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that applying the new registration act, known as SORNA, to Megan's Law cases was unconstitutional because, in some cases, it imposed harsher registration requirements, a violation of the ex post facto clauses of both the U.S. and state constitutions.

The state's highest court found that the SORNA ruling applied to cases which were already under appeal as of Sept. 18, 2017, the date on which it issued its landmark ruling.

The Hollingshead appeal was not filed until Jan. 18, 2018.

The Pennsylvania Legislature has, since the 2017 ruling, passed a new law, known as SORNA II, that governs registration of sexual offenders.