HAMILTON COUNTY — The Greenfield-Central High School teacher who faced felony charges in Hamilton County after he was accused of falsely attesting to a teen offender’s community service work has been sentenced for a lesser crime.
Brent Michael Oliver, 46, 2000 block of Justice Drive, Greenfield, was in Hamilton County Superior Court 6 on Wednesday, Jan. 29, where a plea agreement was accepted by Judge Gail Bardach.
Oliver was found guilty of a Class A misdemeanor count of making a false statement under oath and was given a sentence of 365 days in jail. He will, however, spend no additional time behind bars: All but two days of the sentence was suspended to probation, and he was given two days of credit for the time he had already spent in jail.
He also was ordered to pay $285 in court fees and also must complete any educational and/or treatment programs required by his probation officer, the court documents said.
Oliver, a longtime G-C educator, had been an assistant principal at Greenfield-Central High School for five years but was reassigned to teaching duties in October after district officials became aware of his legal troubles.
He is still an employee in the district as an English/language arts teacher, and officials do not plan to change that, they said at the time of his arrest earlier this month.
According to a probable cause affidavit from the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office, on Sept. 9, 2019, Luis Daniel Vazquez, 19, Fishers, presented a verification form to Hamilton County officials indicating he had done court-supervised community service work in Greenfield over a weekend in August.
The form completed by Vazquez had a verification signature from Oliver.
Officials from Hamilton County later determined Vazquez did not perform any type of community service in Greenfield, the affidavit said.
In conversations with G-C personnel in late September, Oliver acknowledged signing the document and said he did so knowing the community service hours had not been performed, the affidavit said.
Prosecutors originally charged Oliver with perjury and conspiracy to commit perjury. Both are Level 6 felonies. He was arrested on Jan. 1 and was booked into the Hamilton County Jail.
It was not clear from court records how Vazquez and Oliver knew each other. Both men refused to speak with investigators, the affidavit noted.
