Former Nantucket High School Coach Pleads Guilty To Child Rape, Child Pornography Charges

A former Nantucket High School assistant sports coach pleaded guilty to seven charges of rape and abuse of a child under 16 years old and one charge of enticement or solicitation of child pornography in Nantucket Superior Court Thursday morning.

Mark Hamilton, 24, of Dennis, avoided jail time and was placed on probation for two years on the child pornography charge and was given a suspended jail sentence of two-and-a-half years in the Barnstable House of Corrections on the seven child rape charges. The jail sentence will only be imposed if Hamilton violates the conditions of his probation.

As part of the guilty plea, Hamilton, a Nantucket High School graduate, must submit a DNA sample to the state and is required to register as a sex offender.

During a hearing Thursday in Nantucket Superior Court, assistant district attorney Vanessa L. Madge asked the judge to sentence Hamilton to four to six years in state prison. That is longer than the suggested sentence of three to five years in jail that generally comes with the charge of rape and abuse of a child under 16 for a defendant with a lack of a criminal record, according to Madge. 

Madge said the state was seeking a more severe sentence because Hamilton was employed by Nantucket High School as an assistant sports coach and “in a position of authority over a vulnerable (girl under 16) victim at the time.”

“He was an unpaid volunteer (sports coach) and never played (the sport he was coaching),” Madge said. “Over the course of his coaching, he had conversations not typical of a professional relationship between a player and coach. He abused that position of authority.”

A Rule 12 Conference took place on Tuesday to set up the eventual plea deal on Thursday. During the conference, Madge and Hamilton’s attorney Jim Merberg provided their sentencing recommendations to Judge Karen Goodwin, detailing what they would like to see in a potential plea deal. While Madge sought state prison time, Merberg suggested that Hamilton should avoid jail time, arguing that his client was a hardworking man with no prior criminal history.

Merberg also urged Judge Goodwin to consider several letters of support that had been submitted to the court vouching for Hamilton’s character. There were a total of five letters submitted on his behalf. The authors of two of those letters were referenced in the public court session: Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey and former Nantucket Police Chief Bill Pittman. Merberg added that Lucey went as far as to post Hamilton’s $2,500 bail when he was arraigned last November, which Merberg said reflects Hamilton's overall character while acknowledging he made “an egregious mistake.” 

Hamilton said during his colloquy that he previously worked for the harbormaster’s office, starting there when he was as young as 16 years old.

"In my opinion he really is a decent young man who made an error in judgment that unfortunately sometimes young men make errors in judgment," Merberg told the Current Thursday afternoon. "It was truly, as I told the judge, really aberrant behavior. This was not who he is or what he is. He spent his entire life without a traffic ticket, a parking ticket even. He was well-liked by everybody in the community that wrote in support of him including the Chief of Police and Sheila Lucey, who he worked for in the harbor department, and all of these other people who really, genuinely believe that he made a horrible mistake, but they also understood that he was a good person. It is still an unpleasant event. He didn't want to make this young lady go through anything that would be embarrassing to her and he did what he had to do, which was admit his responsibility for it."

The Current requested copies of the character letters from Nantucket Superior Court, but that request was declined by clerk magistrate Mary Adams who said the documents had not been entered into the record as formal exhibits and that they were in the possession of the Probation Department rather than the court. 

Judge Goodwin said that while she acknowledged the charges to be severe, she was taking all things into account such as justice for the victim, punishment of Hamilton, rehabilitation, and deterrence. She felt probation in this case was “sufficient.”

Along with the two years of probation, Hamilton was ordered to stay away from the victim in the case and have no contact her. An additional condition is that he not participate in any activities or work any jobs involving individuals below the age of 16.

According to the police report from the fall of 2023, Hamilton began exchanging messages with a girl under the age of 16 in November of 2022. Those exchanges eventually began happening through the Facetime app.

In January, February, and March of 2023, Hamilton and the victim engaged in sexual acts while she was under the age of 16, according to the report. The victim told police in September of 2023 that those acts were forced by him. While Hamilton admitted during his colloquy on Thursday that he engaged in several sexual acts with the victim while she was under the age of 16, he did not admit to participating in any sexual acts that were forced.

Anyone under the age of 16 cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse or any sexual acts under Massachusetts law.

On September 15, 2023, the victim told police Hamilton contacted her through a social media app telling her "Not to say anything, to say no to the investigators, to say it was another Mark, and to make the investigators believe something else."

The victim did not submit an impact statement or appear at either hearing. The victim’s father appeared at the conference on Tuesday, saying that case had been a very difficult time for his family and that he wanted justice for his daughter. 

“This has changed my life, my wife’s life. My daughter’s life has not been the same,” he said.

The Current reached out to administrators at Nantucket High School early Thursday afternoon to ask about Hamilton's hiring given his lack of experience in the sport he coached; whether there were any issues/concerns flagged by the school in the hiring process for Hamilton; and whether the school had run a CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) check on Hamilton prior to him being hired. If and when we receive a response, we will update this story.

Hamilton was arraigned on these charges in Nantucket District Court on September 29, 2023 and was indicted by a grand jury in Nantucket Superior Court on November 14, 2023.