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BEDFORD -- A former Bedford Area School District employee convicted on felony sexual assault for illegal contact with a juvenile student was sentenced to seven to 23 months in prison followed by three years' probation.
Jarrod Michael Clapper, 26, was convicted by a Bedford County jury in late April on one felony count each of school-intercourse/sexual contact with a student and unlawful contact with a minor-sexual offenses and one misdemeanor count of corruption of a minor.
Clapper will also need to pay fines totaling $1,250 and undergo sexual offender counseling. While determined to not be a violent sexual predator, Clapper was still classified as a Tier 2 Offender, meaning he will have to register as a sex offender for 25 years. Imprisoned since April 20, Clapper will receive credit for time served.
The charges stem from an encounter between Clapper and a 17-year-old female victim at the Bedford County Airport on Dec. 23, 2021, according to court documents. Clapper had been employed by the school district as a computer technician in 2021, when the victim was a student.
School district officials took action to prevent Clapper from working within the district and contacted state police when they were made aware of the allegations in January 2022. Clapper then resigned.
According to court records, Clapper and the victim messaged each other via Snapchat and Instagram. Clapper then invited the student to see his plane at the Bedford County Airport.
The student told police the two kissed and had sex while at the airport.
A search of Clapper's phone and social media accounts revealed a number of sexual and inappropriate messages between him and the student, police reported.
Prior to sentencing, the victim read an impact statement, saying that she was a stronger individual because of the way Clapper hurt her.
"There were days where I couldn't get out of bed, where I couldn't look in the mirror," the victim said. "I know my decision was a mistake."
She mentioned Clapper's decision "to fight" by going to a jury trial and continued to "deny what happened instead of taking a plea agreement." She said there was "no excuse for (Clapper) to groom me."
Senior Deputy Attorney General Philip Michael McCarthy, who prosecuted the case after Bedford County authorities referred it to the Office of the Attorney General, said this was a "sad, tragic case for everyone involved."
"The law recognizes that people who work at schools can't do what the defendant did," McCarthy said.
During the proceedings, Public Defender Karen Hendershot said that more than 60 character letters were received as part of the presentence investigation.
The courtroom was almost full of family and friends who wanted to support Clapper, with nine of those people reading character statements to President Judge Travis Livengood. These people included extended family, childhood and college friends, his pastor, neighbors and fellow farmers. Across their statements, Clapper was described as family oriented, a hard worker, caring, dedicated to his community and essential to the running of the family farm.
"It is a complete anomaly the amount of people that showed up," Hendershot said. "He has had a wide impact for someone who just turned 26."
Hendershot said that Rockland Manufacturing was holding a position for Clapper, that he had no prior record and that this case wasn't a situation "where he was alleged to have made any kind of threat or coercion."
Based on this, Hendershot asked Livengood to impose a sentence of time served, as Clapper had "in excess of the minimum required three months."
When given the opportunity to speak, Clapper chose to remain silent.
Before handing down Clapper's sentence, Livengood said that it spoke very highly of Clapper that he had so many people supporting him and that there was no reason to doubt that what they said was true.
"Except for this case, you seem to be a model young man," Livengood said.
While Clapper might have had good intentions at the start, what mattered was his role, Livengood said.
"In taking on added responsibility, in this case as a school faculty member, you were supposed to be helping," Livengood said. "You should have taken responsibility and helped her but you did not. You took advantage of it and used it to your will."
As this case appeared to be an isolated incident, Livengood said Clapper's rehabilitative needs and threat to the public were low. Instead, he focused on "the gravity of the offense."
"I'm not just sentencing on what happened between you and the student, I'm trying to fashion a sentence that upholds the community's standards and expectations for someone in your role," Livengood said.
He said that he didn't believe that a sentence of time served would account for the gravity of the situation.
While Clapper was being led from the courtroom, his family and friends became emotional and broke into applause as they shouted that they loved him.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.