Teacher sentenced to prison on sexual contact charges

A 51-year-old Dublin man was sentenced for a total of 50 years – with the first 20 to be served in prison – after he pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual contact by employee or agent in the first degree with a Johnson County High School student in 2024.

Charles “Chuck” Beale was sentenced by Dublin Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge Jon Helton on Tuesday. 

Chief Assistant DA Kelly Weathers said Beale will serve the first 20 in prison and the remainder on probation. Johnson County Sheriff Greg Rowland was pleased with the sentence.

“We are here, and we are going to protect our kids while they are in school at any cost,” said Rowland, who also thanked his investigator, Troy Fallin, and Weathers for the work they did in this case. 

“He is a big asset to the sheriff’s office. I really want to give credit to Kelly Weathers who prosecuted the case. She did a great job.” 

Weathers thanked the investigation led by Fallin and the JCSO.

“He is so detailed and thorough when he works his cases,” Weathers said. “There was a confession and DNA confirmation. It was a very solid case. Had we presented it to a jury, it would have been a very easy choice to have convicted him beyond a reasonable doubt.” 

During the sentencing hearing this week, prosecutors offered victim impact statements from the student and her mother, father and sister.

“The judge imposed his sentence, which I think speaks volumes about the desire to not allow this kind of behavior to happen,” Weathers said. “This undermines the trust, not just of the student but their family and any parent who would send their child to public schools. We were very pleased with Judge Helton’s sentence. It met the expectations of the state.” 

When he was arrested in November 2024, Beale was a teacher at Johnson County, as well as the varsity softball and varsity baseball coach. Weathers said the duration of the crimes was from July to November of that year. 

“There was a rumor that the sheriff’s office became aware of and Troy tracked it down immediately,” Weathers said. “He developed the identity of the student and the teacher, and contacted the parents of the student and took the investigation from that point on. This wasn’t something where someone came forward. This was something where law enforcement was alerted and primed to potential criminal activity and opened an investigation upon that.”

Weathers also thanked Ebony Blake, victim’s advocate for Dublin DA’s office, for her role in helping the victim.

“This put the victim in a very uncomfortable place for a high school student to be in,” Weathers said. “In a case where the trauma runs deep for not only the victim but the family as well, (Blake) was critical for me to be able to do my job in terms of managing the expectations and answering questions and guiding the family on the court process. I had the whole family present in court. I had four people speak and had about 15 other family members who came to support the young lady and the state’s position on the case.” 

That support also included Dublin DA Harold McLendon.

“He took time out of his busy day to come sit beside me,” Weathers said. “That always matters. I appreciate working for a man who is invested and is making sure we are doing the right thing to the very best of our ability.”