STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — A former high school football player found delinquent in the rape of a 16-year-old girl is asking a judge for a less restrictive sex-offender status.

Trent Mays was released in January after serving a two-year sentence in an Ohio Department of Youth Services facility. He is required to register as a sex offender every six months for the next 20 years.

Judge Thomas Lipps was scheduled to hear Mays’ arguments today for a less restrictive status. Mays’ attorney said he expects a decision today.

Mays and another high school player in Steubenville were convicted of a raping the West Virginia girl at a party in 2012. Mays, 19, was also found delinquent for using his phone to take a photo of the nude victim.

Last year, Lipps eased the same requirements for Mays’s co-defendant to registering once a year for the next decade.

The case drew national media attention in part because of the role of texting and social media in exposing the attack, which led to allegations that authorities were covering up the actions of players on the city’s revered football team.

Mays is taking classes at Hocking College in southern Ohio, where he’s also the star quarterback.