A wrestling coach gave his phone number to a student and sent sexually explicit messages, police said.
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A 64-year-old wrestling coach is accused of sexting a 14-year-old student and asking her for naked photos in Washington, police said.
Daniel Ralph Lee of Seattle was arrested on multiple charges April 15 in Maple Valley, the Auburn Police Department said in a probable cause statement.
The teenage girl reported Lee on April 3 to a teacher at the Olympic Middle School, and then the principal reported the conversations to police, police said.
The student was a manager on the school’s wrestling team and worked under Lee’s guidance, police said.
During the investigation, authorities learned Lee gave the girl his phone number and began texting her about things not related to wrestling beginning the last week of March, police said.
Soon after, Lee began sending her sexually explicit messages, like asking her to send naked photos, asking her if she’d had sex and telling her he wanted to kiss her, police said detailing the roughly weeklong message thread.
When police arrested Lee, he told them he had talked to the teen and had sexually explicit photos and a video on his phone, authorities said.
He also told investigators “he knew he said some inappropriate language during his text messages with [the girl] but he felt flattered that a 14-year-old female showed him the explicit photos and he liked the attention,” according to the probable cause statement.
Lee was arrested and charged with the following:
- Communication with minor for immoral purposes
- Possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct
- Viewing depictions of a minor engage in sexually explicit conduct
Lee is no longer a coach at the middle school, a spokesperson from the Auburn School District told McClatchy News by email April 18.
He was a wrestling coach for two seasons, the district said, and was not employed as a teacher.
“The Auburn School District has been made aware that a former wrestling coach has been arrested for crimes against a juvenile. Student safety is our top priority and we have been fully cooperating with the Auburn Police Department during this investigation,” Principal Steven Lewis said in a letter to families.
Anyone with information about this incident can contact police by calling the tip line at 253-288-7403.
Auburn is about a 30-mile drive south from Seattle.
Helena Wegner
McClatchy DC
Helena Wegner is a McClatchy National Real-Time Reporter covering the state of Washington and the western region. She’s a journalism graduate from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She’s based in Phoenix.
