Former Teacher Plead Guilty to Statutory Rape and Sent to Prison

Ernest Nichols

On August 5, 2011, Ernest Nichols plead guilty to statutory rape before the Honorable Robert C. Ervin, Superior Court Judge, in Mecklenburg County Court.  He was sentenced to 216-269 months (18-22 years) in prison.

Nichols, age 44 at the time the crimes were committed, was arrested in October of 2009 when a 16-year-old girl reported that she had been raped by him when she was age 15.  At the time of his arrest, Nichols was a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school teacher at Ranson Middle School.

The defendant video-taped his crimes involving the victim and when he was confronted by the victim’s mother after the victim disclosed the abuse, Nichols drove down Highway 73 and threw the video recordings into the woods. That evidence was retrieved by the Huntersville Police Department.