‘Principal Of The Year’ Accused Of Worst Crime Possible With Student

A highly regarded principal of a Missouri High School was accused of a horrible crime. Matthew Lindsey, who was honored as the 2015 "Principal of the Year" by the Greater Kansas City Missouri Principal's Association, was led away from his office in handcuffs on statutory rape allegations that date back nearly 20 years, according to People.

On Wednesday, Lindsey was arrested inside Winnetonka High School in Kansas City, Missouri.

According to the arrest affidavit, the 48-year-old veteran educator had sex with an underage female student around 20 times over the course of an eight-month period.

The married father allegedly had a relationship with the student back in October of 1997 until May of 1998, when he was 29 and the female was 16.

Lindsey was the assistant principal, athletic director and boy's basketball coach for the high school in Richmond, Missouri during the school year in question.

The girl Lindsey allegedly had sexual relations with was an underage cheerleader he befriended on the school bus while traveling to out-of-town basketball games.

The affidavit also claims that Lindsey gifted the girl cash and other presents over the course of their affair. The relationship became physical after Lindsey asked the cheerleader if the pizza place she worked for did "deliveries."

Apparently, the girl's friends were aware of the relationship. The victim's friend explained to the investigators on the case that she drove the cheerleader to Lindsey's house on multiple occasions.

The victim brought forth the charges this past October. No word as to why she waited until now to report the alleged sexual relationship.

"To me, it is important that kids are protected," prosecutor Camille Johnston said while talking with the Kansas City Star. "So if this happened 20 years ago, it could possibly be happening now. I just want to make sure that our schools are safe, so that is why I went ahead and prosecuted it at this point."

Lindsey remains in custody at the Ray County Jail on $50,000 cash bond.

What are your thoughts about this horrific alleged crime?

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[H/T People]