A Columbus City Schools assistant principal who is married to a man charged with being a serial rapist is facing felony charges after being accused of trying to help him hide his alleged crimes.
On Aug. 22, a Franklin County grand jury indicted Marcia Davis, 56, on two counts of intimidation of a crime victim or witness and two counts of obstruction of justice. Davis is the assistant principal at World Language Middle School in the Columbus City Schools system.
According to court records, Davis is accused of helping her husband, Michael T. Davis, on at least two occasions in 2021 and 2022 by giving money or some other items to prevent women he allegedly assaulted from going to police.
Mr. Davis is currently facing five cases in Franklin County Common Pleas Court that accuse him of 20 counts connected to alleged sexual assaults of seven women over an 11-year period. Mr. Davis is scheduled to have a jury trial begin on Aug. 25.
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According to court records, in July 2024, Franklin County Sheriff's Office detectives executed a search warrant for information from Mrs. Davis's cell phone, as well as her husband's phone.
The phones showed conversations between the pair in which Mr. Davis would send Mrs. Davis videos of himself engaging in sexual conduct with other women, court records say, including one video in which a woman is in "obvious duress" and "pleading to be let go."
An affidavit filed in connection with that warrant says in the video, Mr. Davis speaks directly to his wife "requesting money to pay off the female to 'shut her up.'"
Other messages pulled from the phones show Mr. Davis telling his wife, "This girl is for real, give me a call." In another message a week later he says, "You know that I wasn't lying to you about what was going on," court records say.
Mrs. Davis responded to at least some of the messages, according to court records, saying she would be filing for divorce in one and saying she had expected her husband to be faithful in another. No divorce filing was visible in Franklin County court records as of Aug. 22.
According to court records, Mr. Davis is accused of repeatedly picking up women working as sex workers, seeking drugs or both, in a GMC Sierra Denali truck. He would take the women back to the Earl Avenue home he shared with his wife, or to motel rooms. Court records say he would hold the women at knifepoint or threaten them in other ways to force them to engage in sexual conduct with him.
Mrs. Davis is scheduled to appear for an arraignment on Sept. 5, according to court records.
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at [email protected] or on Bluesky at @bethanybruner.dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio assistant principal accused of paying off alleged rape victims
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