Recruiters punished in cheerleader sex case

updated 4:23 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two military recruiters have been demoted and fined because one had sex with a high school student and the other with a cheerleading coach, National Guard officials said Friday.

Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Fletcher and Sgt. Jeremy Pileggi took the military equivalent of a plea deal that also cost them their recruiting jobs.

Police said Fletcher, 29, had an affair with Ware Shoals High School cheerleading coach Jill Moore, who resigned in January after being charged with supplying alcohol and cigarettes and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Moore, the married mother of two, took two cheerleaders to meet Pileggi at a motel, according to sheriff's office reports.

Pileggi, 21, acknowledged having sex with a 16-year-old cheerleader last year, and one of the cheerleaders said she watched Moore and Fletcher have sex, according to the police reports.

Moore told the cheerleaders she was taking them to visit a prospective college, according to sheriff's office reports. Instead, they went to a motel where she met Fletcher in one room, and gave the cheerleaders vodka and put them in a room with Pileggi, the reports said.

Moore was reportedly having an affair with Fletcher, 29. Pileggi, 21, acknowledged having sex with a 16-year-old cheerleader, and one of the cheerleaders said she watched Moore and Fletcher have sex, the reports said.

Because the cheerleader was 16, she was old enough to consent under state law.

Moore and Fletcher allegedly also had sex at a Guard armory in Greenwood. And at least one of the cheerleaders said Moore picked up alcohol for them at a separate Guard training center in Plum Branch, the reports said.

Moore resigned after being charged with supplying alcohol and cigarettes to students and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Blackwell, who was suspended from her job, is accused of ordering cheerleaders not to talk to authorities. Both have maintained their innocence.

The recruiters had been given administrative duties and continue to receive pay, said Guard spokesman Col. Pete Brooks.

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