Any creepy referees in Denver area?
 

Anyone know this guy?

7NEWS - Girl basketball players in Lakewood told police 'creepy' referee kept groping them in games - Local Story

That story brings up a couple issues...

1) Always be cognizant of where you're handing a female player the ball...especially if they are short. I aim for the gut so any slight misses don't end up in the wrong place. Not a bad idea to step back afterward either.

2) Background checks...since Florida is a haven for freaks like this guy, we submit fingerprints and a background check to the state before being registered...required by legislation of all adults coming in contact with students (known as the Jessica Lunsford Act). I think a number of states have similar checks.

With all the video out there, you'de figure this one would be pretty easy to catch.

I know him
 

And have worked with him several times. I never noticed anything unusual and I have a pretty good eye for seeing everything on the court. I'm also well aware of stuff off the court.

Toren

If I'm handing the ball to a thrower-in I'm leaving it in a position so that they have to grab it from me or I do a short (very short) toss. I never put into their body.

1) I tend to bounce the ball on almost all throw in plays. I never thought it would be helpful in this way, I just like the way it gives me an immediate angle to see plays.

2) Anytime any profession is dealing with kids, background checks should be required.

Wow. I'm not sure background checks would have caught this guy, as his sole conviction was for misdemeanor assault. He was arrested for sexual assault, but the charges were reduced.

Stupid, though, regardless. It's just weird to me that it only happened in one game, or was only reported in one game. How does a parent not catch this when it's so out in the open like that? It doesn't make sense.

The lie he apparently told was in response to whether he had ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor other than a traffic offense. Had he answered that truthfully, I still don't know that he would have been barred. I don't know the CHSAA policy on officials with 15-year old assault convictions.

"Then the referee would, again, brush a teen player across her breasts with both hands after handing her the ball for an inbounds pass. Or he would grab a player's buttocks, according to police records obtained by 7NEWS."

Really? How would one brush with both hands and not have someone go ballistic. How would one grab "buttocks" and not have someone stop them. I guarantee that if this happened in my daughter's game - the player would smack his arm away, the coach would step up, and if that failed, so would the fans. There's no WAY this happened during games in public gyms.

""Okay, this is getting weird," one girl recalled thinking to herself when she spoke with police detectives." --- what an incredibly and not believably mild reaction...

Sorry ... I don't buy this at all.

1, me too, and me too.

2. I'm not as convinced that background checks would help, or are necessary. We've talked about it before, but the public nature of all of our contact with the kids significantly reduces the risk of this sort of thing. Further, I'm not overly comfortable with background check information being kept on file somewhere. There are a lot of details I have yet to see hashed out that give me pause.

Various sports, various organizations, I probably get 6-8 background checks a year. I have no issue with them. And honestly, just the fact that they make you fill out the permission sheet to let them run BC's on you is likely enough to filter out the truly hard cases.

Agreed...but ya have to hold it somewhere for them to grab it.

Not close enough to touch them in an inappropriate place, that's for sure.

I think I'll bounce from now on, even on the FC endline.

This.

This just does not sound very possible without someone other than the players making comments. Unfortunately we contact player often and sometimes very innocently. I know I have bushed cheerleaders and did so either running into them or them not in the proper spot. It just sounds fishy if they have to look at video to determine this happened. I smell a rat.

Peace

Another reason to stay away from girls/woman's basketball. Now if we could only get cheerleaders outlawed or moved to another gym and out of our way!