GALLIA COUNTY, OHIO – Matthew Huck, formerly of Gallipolis, Gallia County Ohio, was the trusted wrestling coach at River Valley High School but investigators and special prosecutors built an airtight case that showed he was really a sex offender who preyed on young teens. Today he was convicted and sent to prison for six years.
“From 2003 to 2016, Matthew Huck pressured teenage boys from his wrestling team to regularly have sex with his wife, Paige Huck,” Special Prosecutor Mark R. Weaver said after the sentencing. “This was a creepy sexual fantasy the couple shared and their mutual perversion resulted in the abuse of the three boys outlined in the criminal charges.”
Matthew Huck and Paige Huck have since divorced, and she is now serving a prison term for her role in the sex crimes.
“In 2004, at a co-ed sleepover at the Huck home, Matthew Huck also sexually assaulted a teenage girl,” Special Prosecutor David Kelley said. “This brave woman contacted us after she learned of our charges against Paige Huck. Her bold testimony about how Matthew Huck assaulted her cemented our case.”
Huck was convicted of four felony offenses and sentenced by Judge Margaret Evans. She also designated him as sex offender who, when he leaves prison, will have to register for 25 years, at which point he will be 80 years old. The sentence was jointly recommended by special prosecutors and defense attorneys.
For more than a decade, some in Gallia County suspected that Paige and Matthew Huck were sexually abusing high school students, but the special prosecutors noted that no one contacted law enforcement until recently. Weaver and Kelley – both of whom have served as special prosecutors in more than a dozen Ohio counties – were appointed to ensure the case was independently investigated and brought to court.
“We want to thank Gallia County Sheriff Matt Champlin’s office – as well as Attorney General Dave Yost’s Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation – for their expertise and assistance in both of the Huck cases,” Weaver concluded. “Because of the passage of time and forgotten recollections, these law enforcement professionals had to work harder than usual to gather enough evidence to allow us to make our case in court.”
“We know that some in the community would have liked to see the Hucks spend more time in prison, but this negotiated outcome was approved by all Huck’s victims,” Kelley went on to say. “We’re always ready to take cases to trial but litigation brings with it the risk of an acquittal and, even upon conviction, many years of appeals. This result gives victims both the justice and the closure they want and deserve.”
Kelley spent more than two decades as the Adams County Prosecuting Attorney and as an Assistant Prosecutor in other Ohio counties. Weaver was the Deputy Attorney General of Ohio and has served as a Special Prosecutor in a dozen Ohio counties, including numerous child sex cases and two death penalty prosecutions. He is currently a part-time Assistant Prosecutor in Marion County.
