Former Holt High Coach Charged in Rape of Student in Late 90s

A former teacher and softball coach at Holt High School was charged last week with the rape and sodomy of a minor in the late 1990s, investigators announced Monday.

The multi-agency Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigates all assaults, homicides and sex crimes in the area, and its commander, Jack Kennedy, said the alleged victim in this case approached police last February to report that she had been sexually assaulted when she was a student in the Tuscaloosa County School System 22 years ago.

Her report launched a 10-month investigation, and because there is no statute of limitations on sexual assault under Alabama law, it ended with a grand jury indicting 57-year-old Henry Joel Snow on one count each of first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and second-degree sodomy.

Kennedy said Snow was a 35-year-old teacher and softball coach at Holt High School at the time of the offense.

Now 57, Snow is employed by Causey Middle School in Mobile County, Alabama.

Kennedy said Snow was booked in the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Christmas Eve and has since been released on bond.

He said no further specific details of this case will be publicly released because the victim was a minor at the time the crimes were allegedly committed.

Kennedy praised the courage of the victim for coming forward and reporting the assaults to law enforcement and urged anyone else who believes they were victimized by Snow to contact the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit at 205 464-8690.