DAYTON — A former high school softball coach pleaded not guilty to more than 100 new charges related to sex crimes involving children.
News Center 7’s John Bedell has been following this story for two months. He was in court on Wednesday as James Grubbs was back in front of a judge.
Grubbs was in court to answer, for the first time, to 108 new charges in his voyeurism case. His attorney, Nick Surkala, said, “At this time, we would enter a plea of not guilty to all charges.”
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A grand jury handed down a new indictment last week against Grubbs, charging him with 72 additional counts of child porn and 36 new counts of voyeurism.
Prosecutors said the charges stem from an SD card they found in Grubbs’ home. These are additional charges in a case Grubbs was first charged in connection with in July.
Valley View Schools put Grubbs on leave from his coaching job at the end of last school year for an investigation tied to allegations he was sending inappropriate texts to one of his softball players. He resigned the same day.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr., said, “That investigation revealed that the defendant coach had multiple exchanges with the minor victim, and in effect was grooming her.”
Grubbs has been charged with one count of grooming in connection with that investigation. However, when detectives got ahold of his phone, prosecutors said they found Grubbs had installed hidden cameras and took images of other minor girls in what they described as “various stages of nudity.”
Prosecutors said those additional victims were known to Grubbs, but were not related to Valley View Schools. Then, those new charges came down last week after police said they reviewed his SD card.
Grubbs has been out of jail on bond. Prosecutors wanted the judge to increase his bond in light of the new charges.
Whitney Crim, Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor, said, “It’s the state’s position that he is a flight risk and that he is a risk to the community.”
Judge Mary Wiseman denied that request. She also refused when the defense asked for Grubbs to be able to leave home for work. For now, she decided to keep him on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor.
“We’re going to keep things status quo as they are,” Judge Wiseman said.
Grubbs is due in court for the next time in this case at the end of October.
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