Coach gets jail, but won’t be labeled as a sex offender

10-9-2010 Michigan:

Christopher Moses sentenced to 75 days of incarceration

Allegan County, MI — A former Hamilton basketball coach will not be listed on the state’s sex offender registry, but he will serve 75 days in the Allegan County Jail for using a computer to view nude pictures of a 15-year-old student and to send her sexually explicit e-mails.

The victim’s mother pleaded with the judge Friday to list Christopher Jerome Moses, 23, on the statewide registry as part of his sentence.

“I don’t want to ruin the rest of his life,” said the victim’s mother. “I do see predatory behavior.”

She cited the 28 e-mails Moses sent her daughter, saying they “started tame but ended horrible.”

The final e-mail “reads like a porn magazine,” she said. “With that escalation, that says predator.”

Prosecutor Fred Anderson said the defendant’s conduct was predatory.

He said putting Moses on the registry would protect the community.

Allegan County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Cronin called a listing on the sex offender registry “equivalent to a death penalty” to a person’s reputation and career. “It’s a lifetime disability.”

The actions of Moses were not serious enough to warrant that stigma, Cronin said, because Moses never made an attempt to meet the teen or have physical contact with her.

They were friends on Facebook.

The judge said Moses is not a predator, but was on that path and was lucky the victim’s sister showed the sordid e-mails to their mother, leading to the arrest.

“You have the opportunity to be rehabilitated. If it fails, I will send you off to prison,” Cronin said.

Moses was a basketball coach for Hamilton Middle School when the crimes occurred, but he left the position before he was charged.

Before Friday’s sentencing, he was employed at a restaurant in Traverse City.

The victim was an athlete and looked to Moses for guidance, her mother added.

As part of his sentence, Moses will have to return to Allegan County courts to listen to the testimony of sexual abuse victims in other trials.

Moses, who stood silent during the more than hour-long sentencing, is forbidden to use a computer except for employment or school, both instances under direct supervision, and is to have no contact with the victim’s family. He is to receive counseling and pay at least $900 in restitution.

Moses pleaded guilty in August to the charge of using a computer to commit a crime. In exchange for the plea, three other charges were dropped. ..Source.. JIM HAYDEN