Former Ike coach pleads to sexual battery

A former Eisenhower High School volleyball coach pleaded guilty in December to allegations connected to an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Nieko “Nicko” Miranda, 44, of Lawton, pleaded guilty Dec. 4, 2024, in Comanche County District Court to a felony count of sexual battery, records indicate.

During sentencing Dec. 19, 2024, District Judge Scott D. Meaders sentenced Miranda to a 10 year suspended sentence and $1,000 find as well as two years of Department of Corrections supervision.

Miranda also had to surrender his teaching license, cannot be employed by or within school systems during probation and must register as a sex offender.

The Constitution discovered the plea and sentence while researching the case’s status on Thursday. The plea came when the case was to be set for the past trial docket. 

Miranda was charged in March 2024 after the mother of the girl at the center of the case took text messages and the girl’s cellphone to Lawton police after she’d discovered the teen had been staying at Miranda’s house, according to the probable cause affidavit. A digital analysis of the teen’s phone revealed messages between Miranda and the teen dating from November 2023 to Feb. 11, 2024, with some messages described as “explicit” between the teacher and student.

There were references to meeting in Miranda’s classroom and at his home and included sexual talk between them as well as references to her being his girlfriend and of being together following her graduation from high school, the affidavit states.

Although the girl was 18 at the time of the relationship, when filing the charge last year, District Attorney Kyle Cabelka said the crime stemmed from the student/teacher power imbalance where the student is dependent on the instructor. 

Miranda had been a computer science teacher and head girls volleyball coach at Eisenhower High School since June 2022 and was let go by the district upon the filing of the charge.