Former Fairfield Community High School Cross Country Team Coach Sentenced To Twenty Years In Federal Prison

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Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on February 2, 2015, Timothy C. Going, 44, formerly of Fairfield, IL, where he worked as the coach for the cross country team, the assistant coach for the track team, and a math teacher at Fairfield Community High School, was sentenced on four-count Indictment, charging him with three counts of Attempted Sexual Exploitation of Minors (Counts 1-3) and one count of Possession of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct (Count 4). On Counts 1-3 of the Indictment, Going was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release, all to run concurrently. On Count 4, Going was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release, to run concurrently to Counts 1-3. The Court also ordered Going to pay a fine of $200 on each count, for a total fine of $800, and a $400 special assessment. Going has been held without bond since his arraignment on a Criminal Complaint on July 21, 2014.

“So many of the aspects of this case are simply disgusting, but the most reprehensible is the complete and utter disregard for the trust that the schools and the parents had placed in Going. Hopefully this long sentence will send a powerful message to those who might want to take advantage of a position of trust – do something like this and forget about a future on the streets as a free citizen.” observed United States Attorney Wigginton.

The investigation into Going’s criminal activities began on May 5, 2014, when a hidden video camera was discovered above a bathroom stall in the girls’ locker room at Fairfield Community High School. The video camera was wired to a black box with an antennae attached to it and a SD card slot in it. The next day, an Illinois State Police (ISP) crime scene investigator collected the camera and black box as evidence and transported them to the ISP’s forensics crime lab in Springfield, Illinois.

An ISP Forensic Technician began a forensic examination of the SanDisk micro SD card (SD card) removed from the black box that was wired to the hidden video camera and discovered several video clips from May 5, 2014, which depicted teenage girls using the bathroom stall or standing or walking next to the bathroom stall in the girls’ locker room in various stages of undress. There were other video clips that had been deleted that showed that the camera had been hidden in different locations in the girls’ locker room, including the changing area, before being placed above the bathroom stall.

The SD card also contained a video clip from May 2, 2014, which captured the placement of the hidden camera in the location in which it was found, by a white male wearing shorts and white ankle socks at approximately 10:28 p.m. that night. A review of the school’s surveillance video showed Going entering the school near that time wearing black shorts, a black hoodie, a gray stocking cap, tennis shoes, and white ankle socks. The school’s surveillance system captured Going later going into the dark gym area, and, at approximately 10:28 p.m., leaving the gym area wearing his white ankle socks and carrying his shoes. The surveillance camera then showed Going exit the school, sit on the stairs to put on his shoes, walk to his truck and drive away.

Additional images recovered from the SD card showed images of members of the girls’ cross country team in various stages of undress as they prepared to and/or finished showering in what appeared to be different hotel bathrooms. Illinois State Police Special Agents spoke with the administration at Fairfield Community High School and learned that Going had taken the cross country team on two overnight trips in 2012 and one overnight trip in 2013 to attend track meets and two regional competitions at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois. Going drove the bus that carried both the cross country team to the meet and regional competitions.

Members of the girls’ 2012 and 2013 cross country teams were interviewed regarding these overnight trips. The interviews revealed that Going had the same routine when he arrived at and left the motel with the cross country team. He would either have the team wait on the bus or in the lobby while he checked them in and took the keys from the hotel clerk. He would then tell the kids to wait so he could check the rooms for any “damage” so that the damage would not be attributed to the students occupying the room, and subsequently charged to the school. After he returned, he would assign rooms to the girls and the boys, and give them the keys to their rooms. Likewise, before checking out of the motel the next day, Going would again have the team either wait in the lobby or on the bus while he would take their keys and tell them that he was going to check the rooms for any “damage” and to make sure all personal belongings had been removed. He would then turn the keys into the motel clerk and they would leave. It was at these times that Going installed and removed the hidden video camera from the bathroom of rooms he specifically assigned to members of the girls’ cross country team.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

The case was investigated by the Illinois State Police, the Fairview Heights Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Springfield Child Exploitation Task Force. The case was assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.