Saturday, August 25, 2007
By Karen Kane, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
One of Butler's most prominent citizens was sentenced yesterday to three to six months in jail followed by more than seven years' probation for molesting a teenage boy.
In a nearly inaudible tone, a tearful Donald Rasely, 57, a former music teacher and choir director, stood before a courtroom packed with supporters and apologized to the community at large as well as to the boy he admitted molesting while giving him music lessons.
It was little comfort to the boy's mother, a longtime friend of Mr. Rasely's, who said she and her family were victimized not only by him but by the citizenry that supports him and seems to blame her son for Mr. Rasely's troubles.
About three dozen or so people were in the courtroom yesterday in support of Mr. Rasely.
Mr. Rasely pleaded guilty in June to indecent assault, corrupting the morals of a minor and furnishing alcohol to a minor. The jail sentence was agreed to by both Mr. Rasely and Butler County Assistant District Attorney B.T. Fullerton. However, it was up to Common Pleas Judge William Shaffer yesterday to decide whether his jail sentence would be followed by supervised probation and conditions. The judge gave him the maximum amount of probation he could under the law.
During his probation, Mr. Rasely will be restricted from unsupervised contact with children.
The victim's mother told the court that she and her family do not support the plea agreement and believe that Mr. Rasely should be spending much more time in jail, though she didn't specify a suggested sentence. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does not identify victims of sexual assault.
The victim's mother gave a 20-minute statement to the court yesterday, praising her son for his "bravery" in telling her, then the police what had happened with Mr. Rasely. She said Mr. Rasely's "army of faithful disciples" is ready to allow him to rejoin the community as a music leader when his jail sentence is finished and that "this is completely outrageous and makes a mockery of the justice my son deserves ... "
She said she, her son and their entire family now have "trust issues" and they "live on the edge. ... No one wants to go out into the community for fear of running into someone that is going to make a comment about how we ruined Don's life."
Mr. Rasely was a popular teacher for private lessons in voice, organ and piano, teaching from his home studio on Greenhill Drive in Butler Township. It was during a private voice lesson that he had sex with the 15-year-old boy, who had been his student since he was 10. The police had recorded a 20-minute telephone conversation between the boy and Mr. Rasely that corroborated the boy's report to police.
Mr. Rasely also had been chairman of the board of the Butler Penn Theater Community Trust, a group that is working to restore and renovate the Penn Theater in downtown Butler. He was liturgical music director at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in Butler, a position he had held since 1974. He founded and directed the church's annual Boar's Head and Yule Log festival.
Additionally, Mr. Rasely was a teacher at Butler County Community College and was co-founder and director of the Blazing Star Choral Society. He resigned all positions after his arrest last year.
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