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Updated 13 minutes ago
A former Plum High School substitute teacher and baseball coach will spend at least three years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old student, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney's office.
Common Pleas Judge David Cashman on Wednesday sentenced Michael Frank Cinefra to three to six years in prison. Cinefra, 30, of Penn Hills, also must surrender his teaching license and register as a Megan's Law offender.
Cinefra pleaded guilty in November to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person younger than 16, unlawful contact with a minor, institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors and furnishing alcohol to a minor.
Prosecutors said Cinefra started communicating with his victim at the end of her freshman year in 2011 using the “Words with Friends” app. The communication moved to phone calls and texts when she asked him to buy her alcohol soon after the school year ended. She was 15 at the time, and he was 25.
Cinefra picked up the student from a friend's house to give her the alcohol, and Betpas she performed oral sex on him in his car, police said. After that, he would call or text to tell her when and where he would be substituting at the high school, and they would meet alone in his classroom, where he would kiss and touch the student.
The Tribune-Review does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Two other Plum High teachers who also pleaded guilty to having sex with students already are serving time. Cashman sentenced Jason Cooper, 39, to two to four years in prison and Joseph Ruggieri, 42, to two to five years in prison after both pleaded guilty to sex crimes and witness intimidation.
Cinefra was the last of the cases brought by an investigating grand jury over a lengthy probe into the Plum district that led to a report blasting administrators for passively allowing abuse to occur for years despite rumors and suspicion of misconduct.
A fourth teacher was charged with witness intimidation for allegedly calling out one of the victims in his class, but he was found not guilty at trial last year.
Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at mguza@tribweb.com.
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