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FRANKLIN, Tenn. – A coach at a well-liked cheerleading coaching facility in Tennessee has been arrested and charged with rape involving an underage feminine, in accordance with regulation enforcement authorities.
James Henry So, 27, was recognized because the alleged perpetrator and brought into custody on Thursday. He at the moment faces a number of fees, which embody one depend of aggravated rape, 4 counts of statutory rape, three counts of rape, and two counts of sexual battery, Law&Crime reported, citing court docket paperwork.
Final week, a Williamson County grand jury returned a real invoice indicting So on the aforementioned fees, all of which stem from an incident involving a 17-year-old woman earlier this yr, the Franklin Police Division stated in a press release.
“All the fees have been in opposition to one sufferer, a 17-year-old feminine, and occurred throughout a single encounter. It occurred inside Premier Athletics, on Gothic Court docket,” Franklin Police stated within the information launch. “An investigation was initiated after the incident was reported in March. Outcomes from that investigation, together with an exhaustive assessment of proof within the case, have been offered to a Williamson County Grand Jury, who returned the costs police arrested So for, final night time.”
Prosecutors allege within the indictment that the crimes occurred on or about Feb. 25, 2023. The indictment says the sexual battery fees in opposition to So stem from him “unlawfully, knowingly, and feloniously” partaking in “sexual contact with a minor baby” at a time when So “knew or had motive to know on the time of stated contact that the minor baby didn’t consent.”
Prosecutors additionally allege the prison defendant did “sexually penetrate” the sufferer who “didn’t consent,” and in doing so “did trigger bodily harm to the minor baby,” in accordance with the aggravated rape cost, reported Law&Crime.
James Henry So (Franklin Police Division) Premiere Athletics (YouTube screenshot)
Kim Brubeck is the compliance administrator for Premiere Athletics Nashville. Brubeck stated when the group discovered in regards to the crime in March 2023, they instantly eliminated So from his teaching place and reported the allegations to the Franklin Police Division, WSMV-TV reported.
“Mr. So has not been in any of our services since his removing,” Brubeck wrote within the assertion. “Premier Athletics Nashville will proceed to work with the Franklin Police Division and stands by all survivors.”
So was booked on the Williamson County Jail on the listed fees. His bond was set at $300,000. He’s scheduled for arraignment on July 26.
Police stated that investigators dealing with the case “don’t at the moment assume there are different victims.”
Nonetheless, it’s not the primary time an individual teaching on the facility engaged in prison exercise. In 2021, hidden cameras have been discovered stashed all through the ladies’s restroom and altering areas. The digital cameras contained about 60 movies of “principally minor” females in varied levels of undress, WSMV reported.
Premiere Athletics stated the one who positioned the hidden cameras within the locker room was additionally a coach who had since been fired.
In accordance with WKRN-TV, that former coach was Andrew Halford. He labored as a tumbling coach at Elite Cheerleading and Gymnastics in Carthage, in addition to Premier Athletics in Franklin.
Halford pleaded responsible to a number of fees of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor in reference to the cameras, and in October 2022 was sentenced to 24 years in jail.
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