Former assistant principal pleads guilty to rape

Mark Carpenter, a former assistant principal at Lee Road Junior High School who was accused of raping a 6-year-old girl, pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, a court official said.

Carpenter, 54, was originally charged with aggravated rape for the 1986 incident, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

But prosecutors and the victim’s family members, present in court, agreed to the reduced charge Monday of forcible rape, punishable by up to 40 years in jail without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, said Ronnie Gracianette, chief of trials for the 22nd Judicial Court in Covington.

State District Court Elaine DiMiceli also sentenced Carpenter to five years in jail for possessing child pornography, found during a search of his Covington home.

The sentences will run at the same time, Gracianette said.

Carpenter, accused of attacking the girl before he was hired by the school system, raped the girl for 10 years until she was 16, officials have said.

Now she’s 27, and in part to keep from having to testify in open court, she agreed to the reduced charge.

Carpenter’s arrest shook up the small Lee Road community north of Covington when Sheriff’s Office deputies apprehended him at the school about 3 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2007.

The next day, when Carpenter resigned, letters were sent home to parents explaining the arrest.

Carpenter, of 12127 N. East Drive, passed a background check before the School Board hired him as a teacher at Lyon Elementary School in Covington for the 1997-98 school year.

Carpenter eventually worked his way into administration and became a parishwide assistant principal in 2006.