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Ex-teacher who shared child abuse videos may withdraw lawsuit

A former teacher at a suburban Cincinnati elementary school who traded child sexual abuse videos is now expected to be sentenced in December after his attorney raised concerns about the guilty plea.

Amit Netanel does not deny that he committed crimes or that the children in the videos were the same age as his students. Last month, Netanel, 62, pleaded guilty to three counts of facilitating sexual acts with children.

But on Wednesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, his attorney Richard Goldberg said there were concerns about the specific portion of the pandering law contained in the plea.

Goldberg told Judge Jennifer Branch that the law was “a mess.”

Specifically, Goldberg argued that it is difficult to distinguish between two different subsections of the law. Netanel pleaded guilty to a subsection, which is a more serious felony and carries a presumptive prison sentence. But a subsection that deals with a lower-level felony, he said — and does not include a presumptive prison sentence — uses similar language.

Goldberg said there was “hardly any difference” between the two. He said he wanted an opportunity to consider whether to withdraw the guilty plea and then seek to plead to the lesser offense.

“If you think about it,” Goldberg told Branch, the decision to plead guilty to the higher-level felony “may have been made inappropriately.”

Goldberg raised the issue during the actual hearing of Netanel's sentencing, which began the previous afternoon. Branch was prepared to impose a sentence Wednesday.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Lipps said there was “no legal basis” for Goldberg’s argument. But because of a potentially ineffective legal aid issue, Lipps said the sentencing could not proceed.

The next court hearing is scheduled for December 19th. Netanel, who has begun treating sex offenders, has been released from prison on bail since his arrest in June. At Lipps' request, Branch added new bond conditions, including electronic monitoring of Netanel's location. For certain reasons, including meetings with his lawyer, doctor's appointments and his job as a landlord, he is only allowed to leave his house between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

In June, Netanel ended his employment at Rockwern Academy, a private Jewish school in Sycamore Township. According to Branch, he had worked there for eight years. She ordered him to stay home from school. He is also not allowed to be near children.

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