Ex-Latrobe wrestling coach testifies in alleged hazing case

A former junior high school wrestling coach testified he didn’t originally believe any crimes were committed or students were hurt when he saw one of his team leaders brandish a stick before practice last year. But Cary James Lydic admitted Wednesday that video of the incident suggested wrongdoing.

Responding to questions from a Westmoreland County prosecutor, Lydic conceded wrestlers on the Greater Latrobe Area Junior High School team exhibited inappropriate sexual behavior in January 2020.

“I can see that now, and in hindsight — knowing everything that happened before — but at the time, no,” Lydic testified during the second day of his nonjury trial.

Lydic is on trial on charges he failed to report suspected child abuse incidents and endangered the welfare of children in his care.

Prosecutors claim that as a coach of the school’s wrestling team, Lydic, 30, of Greensburg was required by law to report suspected incidents of abuse of children and hazing.

The prosecution says team members in the seventh through ninth grades assaulted students with a wooden stick on at least four dates early last year. In one incident, authorities said Lydic stood nearby and watched as two students held a boy down and pulled up his legs as another jabbed him in the buttocks with a stick.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger deferred a ruling on the case after hearing testimony and closing arguments from lawyers Wednesday. He said he will issue a verdict at a later date.

Team members testified older students assaulted them with what they called a “rape stick” in multiple incidents over a week’s time early last year.

Security video recorded in the school’s wrestling gym and played in court during the trial showed Lydic was present when at least one assault occurred. He confiscated the implement.

Lydic was the lone defense witness to testify. He told the judge he never originally considered his team’s behavior as problematic.

“At this time (in the video), I didn’t know that stick was being used inappropriately,” Lydic testified. He suggested the implement had previously been used by team members to play stick ball, and he was distracted as he worked on a computer during the incident.

Lydic also refuted testimony from three team members in which they claimed the coach was told about the stick incidents and suggested to them that behavior was “weird.”

Defense attorney Casey White argued Lydic was not guilty of any crimes as no team members were injured and none were convicted of any sexual offenses. White contended Lydic was not required to report what he called “horseplay.”

“These kids were picking on each other,” White said. “This was horseplay, and that’s all this amounts to.”

Assistant District Attorney Judi Petrush argued the incidents were much more than just kids messing around before practice.

She said Lydic was required by law to report the incidents after he first saw what had occurred on Jan. 8, 2020, and again after two of his wrestlers told him two days later they were being assaulted with a stick.

The prosecution contends Lydic only alerted school officials the evening of Jan. 14, 2020, after he received a call from a team member’s parent about the incidents and, even then, downplayed the report.

“He knew these things were done, and he chose not to report them,” Petrush argued.

During a meeting the next day with school officials and police, Lydic denied he knew a stick was used against students, Assistant School Superintendent Michael Porembka testified.

Assistant coach David F. Galando, 44, of Youngstown also was charged with misdemeanor counts of child endangerment and failing to report potential child abuse allegations. Galando was ordered last October to serve two years on probation as part of a deal with prosecutors that enabled him to enroll in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

Galando did not plead guilty to the charges, and his criminal record can be expunged after two years.

He and Lydic were fired by the district after their arrests.

Four 15-year-old boys, all members of the wrestling team, were prosecuted in juvenile court. Juvenile court proceedings are held behind closed doors and the results are not made public.