Rich Fellers (Washington County Sheriff’s Office) and Maggie Kehring (KOIN screenshot)
A 63-year-old world-class equestrian coach and former Olympian show jumper in Oregon will have to wait longer than an Olympiad before he’s released from prison for sexually abusing one of his minor students.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut on Thursday ordered Rich Fellers to serve a sentence of 50 months in a federal detention center for the abuse he inflicted on Maggie Kehring, beginning when she was 16, authorities announced.
While Law&Crime typically would not identify a victim of sexual assault by name, Kehring has been an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual abuse in youth sports, publicly speaking about her experience and helping to found WeRideTogether, a nonprofit organization created in 2021 to “shine a light on the endemic issue of sexual abuse in youth sports,” according to the group’s website.
Feller reached a deal with prosecutors in July and agreed to plead guilty to one count of interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. In addition to his stint behind bars, Fellers will also be required to serve an additional five years on supervised release and register on federal and state sex offender lists.
He had also been charged by the Washington County District Attorney’s Office with four counts of second-degree sex abuse for his abuse of Kehring. He is scheduled to appear for his sentencing hearing in that case on Oct. 27. However, federal and state prosecutors said they reached a “global resolution” in which Feller’s prison sentence will run concurrently with any state prison term imposed by Washington County, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.
According to court documents, from late 2019 until the summer of 2020, Fellers “maintained an intimate sexual relationship” with Kehring, one of his equestrian students, since she was 14.
Prosecutors say the relationship began when Kehring was 16 and culminated with a road trip in June 2020 in which they left Oregon and traveled to an equestrian event in Michigan.
“Investigators later learned Fellers planned the trip so he could engage in sexual conduct with the student,” the news release said.
Before handing down the sentence, Judge Immergut addressed Fellers directly, saying, “You basically stole the innocence of a child,” according to a report from The Chronicle of the Horse. She reportedly characterized his actions as “abuse of monumental proportions.”
Fellers also addressed the court, apologizing to Kehring, her family and his family and friends, many of whom were reportedly in attendance.
“I offer no excuses,” Fellers said, the Chronicle reported. “My actions caused so much pain for her.”
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As previously reported by Law&Crime, Fellers appeared in a light-hearted October 2019 video for the Fédération Equestre Internationale in which he answered questions while assembling a bridle. When asked what superpower he’d want, he said he wanted to be physically 20 years old again.
The interviewer asked Fellers if he had a celebrity crush.
“No, not really,” the equestrian said. “I’m too old to have crushes.”
That was several months before the phone incident.
“I did care about him, you know, immensely,” Kehring told Portland, Oregon, CBS affiliate KOIN in 2021. “He was a person in my life who I had so much trust and respect for.” She had never been in a relationship, and she had made it clear that she was still a virgin, she said.
She had known Fellers since she was 11.
Kehring was asked how she would have described Fellers when she was 15.
“I would’ve said that he’s an incredible rider,” she said. “He’s an incredible horseman. He’s a great teacher. He’s a great person.”
But now?
He’s a “sociopath,” she said.
Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
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