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Thursday, August 28, 2008
TROY — A Miami County sheriff's deputy described former Troy Christian schools coach James H. Clay's interaction with a student as a "textbook example" of grooming for sexual purposes.
Deputy Mark Slater was the last witness to testify Thursday, Aug. 28, in the trial of Clay, 41, who faces a felony sexual battery charge for alleged conduct with a 15-year-old student between September 2006 and February 2007.
The Miami County Common Pleas Court jury hearing the case will begin deliberations following lunch.
Clay, who has pleaded not guilty, did not testify. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
The girl testified she had nine sexual encounters with Clay at her home, a motel and at his home where she went for weekly Bible studies. She claimed Clay videotaped two sexual encounters, but later assured her — in a call secretly recorded by sheriff's investigators — that the tapes had been destroyed.
"They're gone," Clay told the girl in the recording played for the jury Wednesday. The girl told Clay she was afraid the tapes would surface, causing her problems.
"I wouldn't do that," he said.
The girl's mother testified she begged Clay, who she knew as a coach and leader of teen Bible studies, to mentor her daughter after she and her husband divorced in 2006.
The mother said she had a brief affair with Clay in late 2006-early 2007. She also asked her daughter several times if anything inappropriate was going on between the girl and Clay. The mother said she found out about her daughter and Clay's alleged relationship in summer 2007 shortly after she shared with the girl a story Clay had told her about a friend in the military who claimed to have conducted sexual relationships with both a mother and daughter.
The girl, who called Clay "dad," denied any sexual activity until summer 2007, months after she'd broke off most contact with the coach.
She testified she didn't reveal the relationship because she didn't want Clay's children to be hurt. She told a youth pastor at a church mission camp. He called authorities.
Slater, who was a detective when the report was made, conducted the investigation.
He testified Thursday that investigators are taught about characteristics of perpetrators who gain the trust of a vulnerable person, often a teen or person years younger than the perpetrator, by gaining their trust and luring them into a physical relationship.
Slater said the girl "was searching for something" and Clay took advantage. "It was a textbook example from beginning to end," he said of the relationship.
In closing arguments Thursday, defense lawyer Steve Dankof Sr. repeatedly questioned the depth of the investigation.
He pointed out there was no physical evidence linking Clay and the girl and asked jurors to remember the girl's mother said the girl craved attention in 2006. "She's getting it now, isn't she?" Dankof said. The defense contended the girl made the false claims out of revenge after learning of Clay's affair with her mother.
Tony Kendell, assistant county prosecutor, said the girl had no reason to lie.
"Quite frankly, why would a young woman come in and subject herself to this setting ... and talk about the things she had to talk about, things she is ashamed of?" he said.
