Former Principal Receives Harsh Sentence on Sex Charges
By Susan Williams, Staff Writer
Originally published in The Charleston Gazette, March 19, 2002
FAYETTEVILLE — A former school principal was sentenced to prison Monday on four felony convictions of sexually abusing his former students.
Fayette County Circuit Judge John Hatcher sentenced Edgar W. Friedrichs Jr. to a minimum of 31 years in prison and a maximum of 65. In January, a jury convicted Friedrichs on one felony count of first degree sexual abuse and three felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse by a custodian. The judge sentenced him to one to five years on the first count and 10 to 20 years on each of three other felonies. The judge also said he will serve the sentence on each count consecutively.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit issued by the Southern Regional Jail, Friedrichs listened as Dr. David Estep testified that Friedrichs is a pedophile. Friedrichs denies the doctor's diagnosis.
Before he sentenced Friedrichs, Hatcher noted he had received many letters from family, friends, neighbors and members of Friedrichs' church.
But Assistant Fayette County Prosecutor Tom Steele read from letters from one victim and the mother of another victim. The young man asked that Friedrichs be confined to prison "so he does not have a chance to do it again. What if he comes after more children?"
A victim's mother said she trusted her son's teacher and principal. By the time Friedrichs came to her son's school, Beckwith Elementary, she wrote, Friedrichs was "an expert pedophile," one who knew how to gain the trust of children and parents.
She also wrote that she and her son grieve for another former Beckwith student, Jeremy Bell, who died while he was camping with Friedrichs. Friedrichs has never been charged with criminal matters relating to Bell's death.
The judge said, "I wish I could unring the bell and put you and these other people back to another point in time." Hatcher said he knew it was gut wrenching for Friedrichs' children to testify in their father's trial. But it was "gut wrenching" for the victims to testify, too, he said.
The judge said he was "shocked and surprised" to learn that in 1972 Friedrichs resigned a teaching position in Pennsylvania when allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. Friedrichs could have been suspended with pay, the judge said, but he chose to resign.
Although Friedrichs has admitted no guilt, through his lawyer Ben Bryant, Friedrichs apologized for "bad judgment" with the two young men whose testimony convicted him and to their families.
