Mitchell baseball coach found not guilty, while charges dropped against former board member

Apr. 17—EDITOR'S NOTE — The following story includes graphic details of sexual assault.

MITCHELL — When Luke Norden was acquitted Wednesday, he was met with hugs and sighs of relief from his loved ones.

The longtime Mitchell baseball coach was on trial for four charges of failure to report abuse or neglect of a child and misprision to a felony stemming from a June 2023 alleged rape involving Legion baseball players and a hazing incident that allegedly took place in June 2022.

Norden and former Mitchell Baseball Association president Jeremy Borgan had a joint trial in front of First Circuit Magistrate Judge Donna Bucher at the Davison County Courthouse. Early in the day, Bucher dismissed charges against Borgan, while Norden was found not guilty on all four charges.

"This was a great day for the Norden family," Norden's attorney Clint Sargent said. "It's always great when the justice system works its course." Norden declined to comment on the matter following the case.

Prior to acquitting Norden on all criminal counts he was facing, Judge Bucher criticized the Pennington County State's Attorneys who prosecuted the cases for "selective prosecution." The prosecuting attorney's case did not meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt needed to convict Norden on the charges, Bucher said.

While Norden and Borgan's charges resulted from an investigation into an alleged rape that led to the indictments of six Mitchell Legion baseball players, Judge Bucher made it a point to explain Norden and Borgan's cases were completely different.

"I know nothing about the facts of the case involving the Mitchell baseball players," Bucher said.

Attorneys representing Norden and Borgan argued they were not considered mandatory reporters at the time they were made aware of the alleged incidents involving player misconduct due to their teaching contracts spanning from August to May. And the alleged incidents were reported to Borgan and Norden in June while they were not actively teaching.

Mitchell Superintendent Joe Childs confirmed to the Mitchell Republic on Wednesday that both men are returning to the district to teach, possibly as soon as this week.

Another key argument that emerged during the trial was the gray areas surrounding mandatory reporting laws in South Dakota. Pennington County prosecuting attorney Roxanne Hammond said state law says mandatory reporters must immediately report an incident, while defense attorneys highlighted the Mitchell School District's mandatory reporting policy that says a report must be made within 24 hours after learning of a report.

"The State believes that the mandatory reporting obligation extends past merely when a mandatory reporter is at work. Our most respected and hallowed professions accept the responsibility of protecting children, even outside of their office hours. We believe that the actions perpetrated against the victims in this case rose to the level of mandatory reporting, and we fulfilled our obligations to the community in bringing forth charges. We do respect the decision of the Court, and we hope there can be some clarity to these statutes in the future." Hammond said in a statement following Wednesday's trial.

Sargent pointed to evidence that showed Norden reported a June 2023 incident within 24 hours of being made aware of it to then Mitchell Baseball Association Board President Jason Christensen and board member Tim Bottum. Christensen recently resigned from his role with the baseball association board.

"(Norden) reported it. He's an employee. He met with the supervisor of the organization within 24 hours of learning about it," Sargent said. "You're not guilty of misprision of a felony if you set things in motion like he (Norden) did."

Borgan's charge was dismissed after his attorney, Don McCarty, explained an alleged hazing incident involving players was provided to him by a mother of a player whose son was not the alleged victim. The mother who reported an alleged "goosing" hazing incident to Borgan relayed the information she heard from the victim's mother, which McCarty dubbed as "hearsay."

"There was no way for him to establish probable cause of a criminal event having occurred," McCarty said, noting probable cause must exist for a mandatory reporter to report an incident.

The prosecuting attorneys did not object to the motion to dismiss Borgan's charge.

The June 2022 incident used to charge Norden stemmed from a report he received from the mother of a player who she claimed was a victim of a hazing ritual. During her testimony, the mother of the alleged victim's description of the incident was based on her son's explanation of it. She said her son was "held down" while another teammate "stuck fingers" in his butt while the team was staying in a Wyoming hotel.

Norden first learned of the alleged incident from the mother of the alleged victim. When Norden was informed, he requested to speak with the alleged victim. However, the mother of the victim did not allow Norden to speak with her son about the incident due to concerns of how it could impact playing the remainder of the baseball season, she explained during her testimony.

Sargent argued Norden was never allowed to investigate the report properly due to the mother prohibiting Norden from speaking with her son about the June 2022 hazing allegation.

"He did not have reasonable cause to report it. The only thing he had to go on was a mother's report who didn't even allow him to speak with her son about it. All he got was hearsay," Sargent said.

Sargent pressed the witness, who is a counselor and told investigators she considers herself a mandatory reporter, on why she neglected to report the alleged incident involving her son to law enforcement? As Sargent put it, "Why is he supposed to report it and you aren't?"

The witness became emotional during the cross-examination exchange, which prompted a brief recess and ended her time on the stand. Evidence also showed Norden asked players on the team about the alleged incident in Wyoming, and no players corroborated the allegations to Norden.

As for the failure to report and misprision to a felony charge stemming from the June 2023 incident, Sargent highlighted that Norden reported it within 24 hours to then president of Mitchell Baseball Association Jason Christensen and board member Tim Bottum.

If the allegations made by the mother of the victim were as she described in her testimony, Judge Bucher was confused as to why the mother opted to allow her son to remain on the team that season.

"If the child was threatened with substantial harm, the mother should have kept her son out of that environment," Bucher said.

The father of an alleged victim in the July 2023 alleged rape that took place in Rapid City testified during Norden's trial. After being informed by his son that he was "held down and penetrated annally over his gym shorts" while the team was staying in Rapid City, the father of the victim immediately reported the incident to Norden.

Within 24 hours of learning of the report, Norden quickly set up an in-person meeting with the father and then-board president Christensen to discuss the allegations.

Shortly after meeting with Norden and Christensen, the father opted to contact a DCI agent himself and report the allegations involving his son.

Brian Larson, a DCI agent who helped lead the investigation, testified he obtained SnapChat messages that showed a conversation between players that read, "This must be about the initiation."

"This also led me to believe that something was going on," Larson said of the messages he obtained.

In her closing remarks, Judge Bucher noted the report he made to the DCI came less than 24 hours after Norden and Mitchell baseball officials Bottum and Christensen were made aware of it.

"(The father of the victim) beat them to it," she said, noting the timing of the report to DCI did not implicate Norden.