The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Fairmont AD Donoher’s solicitation hearing set for today

Brian Donoher caught in a sting, police say.

Fairmont AD Brian Donoher on leave following sex arrest

Cincy State to offer new social media courses
New 1 min. ago
Sheriff to target drug trafficking on highways
Updated 12 min. ago
Benefit Saturday to help children of Desert Storm veteran
New 17 min. ago
Third injured firefighter remains at burn unit
3:51 p.m.
Lebanon Police Officer of year inspired by grandfather
2:21 p.m.
> More headlines

By Jill Kelley and Doug Page
Staff Writers Updated 7:12 AM Friday, February 3, 2012

DAYTON — Brian Donoher, the athletic director for Kettering Fairmont High School, is scheduled to make his initial Municipal Court appearance this afternoon on allegations he offered money to an undercover officer for sex.

He has been placed on administrative leave by Kettering school officials.

Donoher, 42, the son of famed University of Dayton men’s basketball coach Don Donoher, was taken Wednesday evening to the Montgomery County Jail where he was held briefly on suspicion of soliciting and possessing criminal tools — both misdemeanors — before posting 10 percent of his $3,250 bond.

Formal charges are expected to be filed at today’s hearing.

A man answering the door at Donoher’s house politely declined to comment. On Thursday, the number to Donoher’s cellphone was listed as disconnected.

Dayton police Lt. Brian Johns, head of the narcotics/vice unit, Thursday said Donoher was arrested during a Wednesday afternoon decoy operation targeting sex customers. He said the operation is part of the department’s participation in “National Johns Week.”

“The vice unit is focusing on the men who come to Dayton to buy sex,” he said. “We have, in the past, focused on the women involved and not seen a substantial decrease in this type of crime. We’re hoping that focusing on the men will change that.”

Under state law, a criminal tool is anything — a cellphone or a computer, for example — that is used in a crime, Johns said. The lieutenant said Donoher was taken into custody when he offered a female officer money in exchange for sex. Johns declined to release any further details on the decoy operation, including the location, saying it is continuing.

In the past, the Dayton vice unit has used undercover officers posing as street prostitutes. The unit also has done online stings.

The Kettering resident has been Fairmont’s athletic director since 2008, and served as Sidney High School AD for two years prior to that. He is not a teacher at Fairmont, and does not possess a teaching degree.

The Dayton Daily News requested his personnel record, which did not show any problems.

Kettering Superintendent Jim Schoenlein said he spoke with Donoher briefly Wednesday night.

“I told him we were putting him on administrative leave,” he said. “We want to wait and see what happens, and see how the legal proceedings unfold.”

Schoenlein said he was understandably shocked by the news.

“He has given us every indication that he was a model employee, model father,” he said.

Schoenlein said Assistant Athletic Directors Joy Manning and Frank Baxter would fill in for Donoher. “We have to make sure all our athletic work gets done.”

Before becoming AD, Donoher spent 12 years as a men’s college basketball coach with Wright State, Wittenberg, Akron, Stetson and Miami University.

Donoher, who is married, is an Alter High School graduate who played basketball for the Flyers for two seasons and also played a year at Wittenberg. He graduated from UD in 1992.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews .com. Staff writer Katie Wedell contributed to this report.

Share this article