JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — A southern Indiana man sentenced to 120 years in prison for molesting 20 children while working at a YMCA and an elementary school is facing a 10th civil lawsuit stemming from that abuse.
Michael Begin, 21, pleaded guilty in January 2019 to 20 counts of child molestation and was sentenced by a Clark County judge to the maximum 120-year sentence, with the final 20 years to be served on probation.
Prosecutors said the Jeffersonville man’s young victims ranged in age from 3 to 8.
The victims’ families filed nine civil lawsuits against Begin during 2018, with most also naming the YMCA and Greater Clark County Schools Corporation as defendants.
An attorney for one of the families filed a civil tort on March 24 that names just Begin and the YMCA as defendants, the News and Tribune reported. That suit requests a judgment against the YMCA in an amount to be proven at trial and also seeks attorney fees.
The new lawsuit alleges that the YMCA failed in not properly notifying the school district of the molestation allegations, or that Begin had been suspended in September 2017 due to an alleged child sexual assault, thereby allowing more children to be molested over the following month.
Of the nine civil cases filed in 2018, some have been closed due to agreements reached, but at least one is headed for a jury trial, set for June in Clark County.
