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	Coach Charged with 'Touching' By Nathaniel Zimmer Southtown Star January 5, 2008 http://www.southtownstar.com/news/727321,010508coacharrested.article A volunteer volleyball coach at St. Gerald School in Oak Lawn has been charged with having "inappropriately touched" a 12-year-old girl at a holiday party for team members held at his home last month, authorities said Friday. Dennis Pratl, 47, was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The girl told police the alleged abuse occurred as she and three other students were leaving the party about 11 p.m. Dec. 28, Oak Lawn Police Chief Bill Villanova said. The girl, a volleyball player, was in the doorway of Pratl's home at 9333 S. 54th Ave. when the contact occurred, police said. The other students reportedly were just outside and about to be picked up and taken home. Despite the presence of others, no one witnessed the alleged incident, according to police, who said the girl reported the matter when she got home. Pratl was arrested Monday and since has posted $12,500 bond and been released, police said. Pratl is not a St. Gerald employee and was not paid by the school, but he was the head coach of the seventh-grade girls volleyball team, according to James Accurso, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Police said the party was not a school-sanctioned event, and Accurso said school officials did not know about it in advance. The school has been out of session since Dec. 20. Classes will resume Tuesday. Accurso said it was "safe to say that ... he (Pratl) is not going to be helping out with the team" in the future. He did not know how long Pratl had been a coach at the school. While police described the gathering as a holiday party for volleyball players, Accurso said "it wasn't actually a party, it was just ... a gathering of friends." Some of the attendees were not volleyball team members, police said. Pratl - who is not the Orland Park police detective by the same name - has a daughter on the volleyball team, police said. He has no prior convictions, according to Villanova. There were approximately 15 students at Pratl's home throughout the course of the evening, but as some came and left the number there at any one time was sometimes lower, according to authorities. Police said no other attendees reported anything inappropriate occurred. Pratl's wife is the only other adult known to have been present at the party, police said. "Obviously, this is going to be traumatic for the young girl," Villanova said. No one answered the phone at the Pratl residence Friday. Nathaniel Zimmer can be reached at nzimmer@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5994.
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