‘I didn’t know how to stop it.’ Teen says Texas coach forced her into sex acts, feds say
A Texas coach will serve prison time after prosecutors say he “continually” pressured a 15-year-old student to perform sex acts with him on school grounds.
Cole Patrick Underwood, 29, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release after pleading guilty in September to enticement of a minor, according to a Feb. 11 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
McClatchy News reached out to Underwood’s attorney for comment Feb. 12 but did not immediately hear back.
Underwood was a coach with the Perryton Independent School District during the period of months-long abuse, according to U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham.
The Perryton superintendent alerted authorities to concerns of an “inappropriate relationship” after school surveillance video showed “Underwood meeting with the girl alone after hours, despite being given a specific directive not to be alone with her,” the attorney’s office said.
The teen said she added Underwood on Snapchat, where he “established a personal friendship,” according to prosecutors.
Underwood’s messages on the app, in which he’d call the teen “wifey,” became “flirtatious and sexual” and he eventually used it to arrange sexual encounters, the attorney’s office said.
Authorities found evidence that Underwood also used ParentSquare – a school-approved application designed for teachers, students and families to communicate – to arrange after-hours meetings for sex acts, according to a criminal complaint.
“I had no idea that he was slowly in the process of grooming me, I genuinely thought that he actually cared about me,” the girl said in a victim impact statement, according to Meacham.
In an interview with authorities, Underwood said he performed sex acts with the teen more than 10 times in his office, according to court records.
“I didn’t know how to stop it…he convinced me to shut everyone out,” the girl said.
“I hope if there is a girl out there who is going through what I have been through, she has the chance to hear my story to know it’s okay to speak up,” she said.
