Suspended Russell County High School coach Tony Rasmus sentenced for harassment
Tony Rasmus, the suspended Russell County High School head baseball coach, has been sentenced after he was found guilty of harassment against one of his players.
Russell County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bellamy issued the Jan. 27 sentencing in a written order because Rasmus waived his right to a hearing. For the misdemeanor, Bellamy sentenced him to:
- Thirty days in jail. But the sentence is suspended in favor of unsupervised probation for 12 months, as long as Rasmus doesn’t violate any laws during that period.
- A $500 fine.
- A $100 payment to the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission.
- Completion of an anger management program at his expense.
Rasmus has the right to appeal the sentencing.
Asked whether he would appeal, Rasmus told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “Why? At this point, it’s obvious what really happened is meaningless. . . . We did what was right and fought the good fight.”
Background about Tony Rasmus case
On Oct. 18, a jury found Rasmus not guilty of a Class A misdemeanor of third-degree assault, the verdict a county judge reached in a June trial after a player accused the coach of choking him. The jurors concluded Rasmus is guilty of the lesser offense of harassment, for touching the player during the Feb. 16 confrontation.
At an Oct. 28 hearing stretching into the wee hours of the next day, the Russell County School District board rejected superintendent Brenda Coley’s request to fire Rasmus. Instead, the board voted 4-1 to suspend Rasmus without pay until June 30. He had been suspended with pay since March 2, the same day Rasmus turned himself in at the Russell County Sheriff’s Office and made bond on the assault charge.
Rasmus appealed his suspension to the Alabama Department of Education. That appeal is pending.
“Evidence and seven grownups who said what I was accused of didn’t happen,” Rasmus said. “I was acquitted by a jury in 10 minutes. The prosecution threw this harassment mess in there at the last minute because he knew he wasn’t going to win. . . . I didn’t harass anybody. Heck i tried to keep the kid from doing something he regretted. But, again, it is what it is.”
Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Chancey, the prosecutor in the case, declined to comment for this story.
Tony Rasmus baseball success
Rasmus coached Russell County to the 2005 Alabama Class 5A state title and a Phenix City all-star team to the 1999 U.S. championship and runner-up finish in the Little League World Series. He played three seasons in the minor leagues during the 1980s. Three of his four sons also played professional baseball.
Rasmus has worked for 23 years in the Alabama public school system, so he needs only two more years to receive a full retirement package from the state. He told the L-E last fall he intends for those two years to remain the head baseball coach and weightlifting teacher at Russell County High School.
“I’m a fighter,” he said.
The RCHS baseball program never had a winning season before Rasmus’ first season as the head coach in 2001, he said. Since then, he led the Warriors to 590 wins, 17 area championships, a No. 1 national ranking by USA Today, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, helped 70 players earn college scholarships, including 25 in NCAA Division I, and Major League Baseball teams have drafted 19 of his players, including four in the first round, he said.
Interim Russell County baseball coach
The Russell County School District announced Tuesday it has hired Logan Williamson is be the high school’s interim head baseball coach.
According to the RCSD news release, Williamson is from Pensacola, Florida, and most recently was the head coach of the Covington Lumberjacks in the Valley Baseball League, a collegiate summer baseball league in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia.
Williamson coached for three years at Pensacola State College. He was the pitching coach for Pensacola Catholic High School, which won the 2012 Florida Class 4A state title and was ranked No. 1 nationally by MaxPreps. He also has conducted baseball camps in Pensacola and at Louisiana State University.
After the Chicago White Sox selected him in the 27th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball draft following his sophomore season at Pensacola Junior College, Williamson went 12-20 with a 5.23 ERA and one save in 196.1 innings, 50 games and 35 starts during four seasons in the minor leagues.
Staff writer Tim Chitwood contributed to this story.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 9:35 AM.
