Former girl's basketball coach arrested for having sex with minors on the team
James Dawson, the former Worthington Christian girl's basketball head coach was arrested on March 25th.
In Jail
Dawson is currently being held in Mecklenburg County Jail awaiting trial for multiple alleged felonies involving two minors he had sexual relations with. These include two counts of sexual battery involving a minor and one count of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor. If James Dawson is found guilty of these crimes he will likely face around 30 years in prison.
What Happend
James Dawson graduated from Worthington Christian High School in 2006 and was hired to coach and teach there in 2014. James Dawson is now 35 years old. This all started in December 2023, when a woman was interviewed by a Columbus police detective. The woman claimed that she had been in a relationship with James Dawson from her sophomore year of high school in 2019 until September 2023. James Dawson was the lead girl's basketball coach at Worthington Christian High School in Westerville when he met her on the basketball team. The woman told police that her relationship with him became sexual when she was 16 and that she and Dawson engaged in sexual activity around 100 times. The woman also told police that Dawson even recorded them having intercourse multiple times and sent her videos of it. Police managed to find three of these videos on her phone that showed them having sex when she was 17 years old.
Second Incident
The second charge of sexual battery involving a minor is associated with a different girl on the basketball team. The second victim alleges that they had sex in November 2020 when she was 17. She stated that this happened while on school property. No other information was provided.
Nobody Expected It
This news came as a shock to everyone as James Dawson was a well respected coach and teacher at the school. "No one student, parent, or anyone else ever reported to us any alleged criminal activity about this former employee. If we had any evidence of criminal activity, we would have followed our policy, which is to immediately contact legal authorities." Said Mike Haynes, the head of school at Worthington Christian. The school asks anyone with information regarding the Dawson allegations to come forward and talk with police.
Sources
Andrew Warren
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