Former Rochester community volleyball organizer pleads guilty to juvenile sexual assault

(ABC 6 News) – A former Rochester community volleyball organizer pleaded guilty to 5th-degree criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old more than 3 years after the original incident.

Tommy Tongsengzeng Yang, 35, was originally charged with 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct after allegedly assaulting the juvenile several times in May of 2021.

Yang pleaded guilty on the first day of his scheduled trial.

He was immediately sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to register as predatory offender.

Yang was also ordered to pay about $3,300 in restitution.

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(ABC 6 News) – A former Rochester community volleyball organizer pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old, more than a year after being charged with 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Tommy Tongsengzeng Yang, 35, was charged in 2022, after allegedly assaulting the juvenile several times in May of 2021.

According to court documents, Yang’s defense attempted to have the charge dismissed in November of 2022 because of the 15-month delay between the alleged assault and the filing of charges by Olmsted County.

However, Olmsted County judge Kathy M. Wallace ruled in August of this year that Yang’s due process rights were not violated by the delay.

Yang is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing March 5 of 2024, with a jury trial scheduled to begin March 11.

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(ABC 6 News) – A Rochester community volleyball organizer has been charged with sexually assaulting a juvenile multiple times in May 2021.

33-year-old Tommy Tongsengzeng Yang was charged in Olmsted County District Court Wednesday with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to the complaint, on May 20, 2021, an officer with the Rochester Police Department spoke with the victim, who was 15 at the time, about a sexual assault.

The victim told the officer she plays volleyball in a community league and that she only knew Yang, the organizer of the league, through volleyball.

She told the investigator that she had messaged Yang on Instagram and that the two of them began texting and talking, and that he helped her.

Court documents state Yang and the victim met up a few times to stargaze and talk.

During one occasion the victim told authorities Yang commented on “the way she moved” and that Yang “told her he would wait a few years for her.”

Documents state Yang sexually assaulted the victim several times in public parking lots around Rochester, and that the victim told him “no” several times during different encounters.

The victim told a friend and her parents what had happened, and had a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) exam done, and also showed a police investigator an abrasion on her knee that reportedly happened during one of the assaults.

Yang is scheduled to make his first court appearance on September 20.