MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A former high school softball coach faces almost four dozen sex crimes involving children.
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Valley View Schools hired James Grubbs to help coach and mentor high school girls on the softball field.
Prosecutors say he exploited that trust.
“He took advantage of his access to young females,” Mat Heck Jr., Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney, said.
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The district put Grubbs on leave at the end of April for an investigation tied to allegations he was sending inappropriate texts to one of his players.
He resigned that same day.
“That investigation revealed that the defendant coach had multiple exchanges with the minor victim, and in effect was grooming her,” Heck said.
Grubbs has been charged with one count of grooming in connection with that probe.
But Monday, we learned once police got hold of Grubbs’ phone that the investigation changed.
“It morphed into additional charges,” Heck said.
Montgomery County prosecutors said Grubbs installed hidden cameras and took images of other minor girls in what they described as “various states of nudity.”
Charging documents show this happened over four months last year.
Prosecutors say those additional victims were known to Grubbs but were not related to Valley View local schools.
Separate from that grooming charge, we learned Monday a grand jury indicted Grubbs on dozens more charges, including 30 counts related to child pornography and another 14 counts of voyeurism.
“This defendant is a danger to this community,” Heck said.
Right now, Grubbs is in the Montgomery County Jail.
He needs $1.5 million to change that.
He’s due back in court later this week.
So far, he has pleaded “not guilty” to the charges against him.
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