Delaware County prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to retry the case against a former Columbus chess teacher accused of inappropriately touching female students.
A hung jury resulted in a mistrial last month in the case of F. Leon Wilson, 62, of 2785 Castlewood Road, Columbus.
County Prosecutor Carol O’Brien said Wednesday that the decision to retry Wilson was made after prosecutors spoke to the alleged victims’ families.
Wilson is still charged with three counts of gross sexual imposition, which are fourth-degree felonies. Wilson’s trial began on Feb. 23 and concluded on Feb. 29 when the jury said they could not agree on a verdict and Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Everett Krueger declared a mistrial.
Wilson is accused of touching a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old during chess lessons in 2015. He was indicted on two of the charges in April 2015 and he was indicted again in July on the third charge after the 7-year-old and her family came forward to talk to authorities.
Wilson has said the offenses “never happened” and said he was disappointed in the jury’s lack of a verdict.
O’Brien said Wednesday that Krueger will set another trial date for the case.
A date for the new trial had not been set Wednesday.
Wilson was out on bond Wednesday. Wilson’s attorney, Bradley Koffel, asked Krueger to remove GPS monitoring after the jury was dismissed and Krueger granted the request.
Koffel said the evidence in the case is circumstantial and relies entirely on the testimony of the two children.
The two girls were interviewed by forensic specialists at the Child Advocacy Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital after they told their parents that Wilson touched their vaginas over their clothes during lessons. The 4-year-old also told the forensic interviewer at Nationwide that Wilson also touched her buttocks.
