An ex-MS martial arts instructor sexually abused her as a child. Adults called her a liar.
On the eve of his trial, former Ocean Springs martial arts instructor Allan Todd Pisarich pleaded guilty to felony charges for sexually assaulting a minor girl.
Pisarich, 54, pleaded guilty Monday to six counts of sexual battery and three counts of touching a child for lustful purposes. He entered the plea before Judge Calvin Taylor and was sentenced to serve 20 years, day for day, in prison.
The judge also ordered Pisarich to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Prior to his sentencing, the judge heard from four of the victims and two mothers. One of those victims, Serena Goldsberry, asked to be identified by name.
“I was a kid, a child, who Allan Todd Pisarich raped and abused,” Goldsberry said. “He turned me into somebody, something I wasn’t. He acted like he was coming into my life and being ‘there for me.’ He painted a picture of what he wished he could be.”
The girl talked about how people in the community supported Pisarich and called her a “liar.”
“Not only was my childhood ripped from me, but (also) my innocence, my virginity (and) my loving open heart,” she said. “Todd hurt me physically and emotionally. He pretended to be my father while he had me in his bedroom pretending to be my husband.”
Like some of the other victims, Goldsberry had been a student at the martial arts academy, and soon after, Pisarich assumed the role of a father figure.
Instead, he abused that trust and sexually assaulted Goldsberry on various occasions for years.
Jackson County prosecutors had planned to have at least three victims testify at the trial before Pisarich decided to plead guilty.
“Todd Allan Pisarich lived two lives — a public life of a trusted community member and coach and a private life where he used young girls for his depraved sexual satisfaction,” District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said. “Pisarich’s victims have been through hell: they endured the sexual abuse, faced hurdle after hurdle in the community and court system, and now live with the aftermath of the sexual abuse. This sentence delivers justice to his victims and ensures he will never hurt another child again.”
In 2017, Jackson County sheriff’s deputies arrested Pisarich, then 50, on two counts of sexual battery for assaulting one minor teen.
By December 2018, authorities arrested him again, this time for sexually assaulting another victim.
When the crimes occurred at different times, beginning in 2016, Pisarich owned The Academy of Mixed Martial Arts on Old Spanish Trail in Ocean Springs.
He led the martial arts center and taught Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a combat sport focusing on grappling and ground fighting. He accepted students as young as 3 years old.
For years since his arrest and subsequent indictments, the families of those involved have fought to get the case tried.
The trial was delayed at least 14 times during the COVID-19 pandemic, with five delays blamed on coronavirus and most of the others due to requests by then-attorney Wendy Martin.
According to authorities, Pisarich preyed on the minor girls and sexually assaulted them after first developing a relationship with a relative of the minor girls.
Pisarich had been free on bond pending trial before his guilty pleas.
“Todd told me I couldn’t serve our country in the ways he did,” Goldsberry said of the former Marine. “I never ruined my chances of joining the military like he tried to make me believe. I am a soldier, and I’m damn good at it, too.”
Assistant district attorneys Nikki Huffman and Carolyn Lewis prosecuted the case.
“We teach our kids to tell us if someone hurts them,” Huffman said. “Then, so often when they tell, the victim is not believed.
“Pisarich admitted in open court to his sexual abuse of these victims,” Huffman said. “There can be no doubt in the community that these girls told the truth. Judge Taylor put it best when he recognized the victims’ courage and the defendant’s cowardice.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2023 at 11:28 AM.
