Definition Of ’Coach’ Could Determine Result Of Inappropriate-Touching Case

TheTimesNews.com (Burlington, N.C.), Michael D. Abernethy

http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/coach-56038-definition-hinge.html

GRAHAM — Whether or not the jury considers a former Williams High School athletic trainer a coach could determine whether a man accused of inappropriately touching female athletes is convicted of charges against him.

The question of Robert Alfonso Clapp’s position within the school system was raised by defense attorney Rick Champion during closing arguments Monday morning. Clapp was officially a first-responder who administered medical assistance to athletes, though students and other coaches testified that they called him “coach.”

Two charges against Clapp accuse him of a sex act or indecent liberties with a student by a school official or coach. The remaining charge against Clapp, statutory sex offense with a 13-, 14-, or 15-year-old, is independent of the academic and athletic relationship.

“They called him a coach but is he a coach? Their evidence says he was a first-responder. I don’t know. Maybe we’re just playing with words here,” Champion said.

The jury began deliberating Clapp’s case shortly after noon Monday and sent several questions to Superior Court Judge Wayne Abernathy late Monday afternoon. One of them asked Abernathy to provide the state’s definition of “coach” and “first-responder.” None exists.

“It would appear he was a first-responder,” the foreman wrote, “but he is charged as a coach.”

Abernathy instructed jurors to “use the definition (of coach) that you would ordinarily use in your everyday affairs and, using your common sense, apply that” to the case.

During closing arguments, Alamance County Assistant District Attorney Lori Wickline countered Champion’s argument saying that students knew Clapp was in charge of caring for athletic injuries, that Clapp had final say on whether or not they played and that students and other coaches referred to him as a coach.

Clapp was a paid, part-time Alamance-Burlington Schools employee before he was fired in April 2011 due to the charges in this trial.

The jury also requested Monday a transcript of statements Clapp gave Burlington police and copies of the first alleged victim’s written statement to police.

Clapp, 46, of Central Avenue, Burlington is charged with statutory sex offense and committing a sexual act with a student based on the accusations of one of the alleged victims in the case, who was 15 when Clapp allegedly inserted his thumb into her on March 23, 2011. A third charge, indecent liberties with a student, arose out of charges that Clapp briefly touched a 16-year-old girl’s genitals while stretching the runner’s leg and hip injuries in the fall of 2010. Both girls testified in the trial, which began Tuesday.

Clapp took the stand in his own defense Friday. Several former Williams coaches testified about Clapp’s character and reputation in the Williams community since he began working with the athletics department in 2007.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Champion attempted to poke holes in the state’s case, calling it circumstantial and lacking physical evidence. He asked jurors to consider why no medical exam was ever done on the first alleged victim, who testified that it was uncomfortable and hurt when Clapp allegedly fondled her. In a videotaped interview by a Burlington police detective, aired to the jury Friday, the detective tells Clapp police can test for DNA evidence in the case, that it could have been present on the girl or on Clapp’s hands. Champion asked jurors why the state didn’t follow through with that testing.

The allegations are inconsistent with Clapp’s reputation with hundreds of female athletes since 2007, Champion said. He questioned the alleged victims’ credibility and motives.

“She said, he said is what this case boils down to. (Detectives) made the decision not to gather more physical evidence,” Champion said.

Prosecutor Wickline countered that jurors had the evidence needed to convict Clapp on all three charges.

A third woman, now a college sophomore, also testified in the trial that Clapp took her to a secluded area of the high school and put his hands beneath her shorts and underwear. She didn’t accuse Clapp of touching her genitals.

“This isn’t he said, she said. It’s a case of he said, three said,” Wickline said. “We don’t have to have 50 girls come in and say, ’He touched me.’ Three is a lot.”

Wickline also asked jurors to consider Clapp’s statements to police and on the stand and how they line up with other testimony. She argued that he hedged on his denial during the initial police interview, first saying he only touched her ankles, then saying he touched the girl’s hip to stretch it before saying a mistake “probably” happened that day, that if he touched her it was “innocent.”

During the trial, a Williams track coach testified he’d had a brief conversation with Clapp about “not putting himself in a bad situation” with students, and to be careful about how he conducted himself around them. Clapp testified that that conversation never occurred.

The jury will continue deliberating at 9:30 a.m. today in the superior courtroom of the Alamance County Criminal Courthouse.