Suspended Monessen football coach Joe Fischer was released from prison Tuesday after a judge ordered additional restrictions on his freedom after he tested positive for cocaine. Fischer, 35, of 92 Scenery Blvd., Monessen, is the school district’s varsity football coach and a teacher at the high school. He was suspended when authorities began looking into a Dec. 17 incident that injured a freshman when allegations surfaced that he had been showing pornographic Internet images to students. Since his arrest, he has been suspended without pay. Fischer’s attorney, Charles Porter, of Pittsburgh, told Westmoreland County Judge Richard E. McCormick Jr. that his client admitted using cocaine to a probation officer. “This kind of shock … being in jail for the first time in his life … gets his attention,” Porter said. District Attorney John Peck asked for Fischer’s release on electronic monitoring. “Judge, he was released on his own recognizance and obviously failed to comply with the terms and conditions of his bond,” Peck said. In addition, he said, Fischer was seen drinking and intoxicated in another instance. But McCormick released Fischer, again on his own recognizance, ordering drug and alcohol counseling and a 7 p.m.-to-7 a.m. curfew. The judge also ordered that Fischer report three times a week to a probation office, and that he not be present in any bars or homes where alcoholic beverages are served. “You got a wake-up call here, Mr. Fischer,” McCormick said. Fischer was jailed March 19 after McCormick ordered him arrested for failing a March 5 drug test. Fischer’s alleged victim, a 15-year-old freshman, initially told police only of the physical confrontation with the coach. The teen said Fischer threw him against a door and then forced him into a seat when he encountered the coach verbally disciplining another student. He later told authorities he had been allowed to view pornographic images and movies in Fischer’s classroom, with the teacher’s permission and sometimes in his presence. Two other alleged victims, ages 18 and 19, told police they too viewed porn in Fischer’s presence, and he sometimes commented on the images or movies. An analysis by the state attorney general indicated Fischer’s classroom computer had been used to download and view pornographic images from December 2002 to December 2003. More than 50 still images and 113 movies of a pornographic nature were stored in the machine, according to police. He faces charges of possessing obscene materials, endangering the welfare of children, criminal use of a communication facility, simple assault, corruption of minors, harassment and obstructing administration of law. Fischer started at Monessen in August 2001 as a social studies teacher, but was reassigned to special education this year. As varsity coach, he guided the Greyhounds football team to the WPIAL quarterfinals last season. Fischer is awaiting trial on a $25,000 bond.

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