By Keith Phucas
Times Herald
April 18, 2011
http://timesherald.com/articles/2011/04/18/news/doc4dac5ba98d2bd247948897.txt
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When a student who had recently left Archbishop John Carroll High School sent a Facebook request for a coach’s help retrieving a pair of cleats in the boy's old locker, the coach was ready to help and allegedly countered with a stunning proposal to become the teenager’s “Sugar Daddy.”
Less than two weeks later, Francis Murphy, the Radnor school’s 39-year-old athletic director, was arrested after allegedly arriving to meet the 11th grader at a Bridgeport ice cream shop Friday morning, according to court papers.
The Bryn Mawr man, who coached football and baseball at Kennedy Kenrick Catholic High School from 1996 to 1998, is charged with corruption of minors and promoting prostitution and is being held on $250,000 cash bail at Montgomery County Prison.
Murphy, who has been athletic director at the school since 1999 and served as the baseball coach and the football team’s offensive coordinator, is on administrative leave, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said the teenager had been recruited by Murphy to come to Archbishop Carroll while at a football camp when he was in the ninth grade. The student, who played for the team in 2010, had never had sexual solicitations from the coach until the recent cleats request.
“After those arrangements were made, the conversation, according to the boy, became sexual in nature,” Ferman said.
The boy recently left the school for financial reasons, and in Facebook conversations Murphy offered to buy the teen gifts in exchange for sexual favors, according to prosecutors.
“We should try it out. See how you like it. I will hook you up. Must stay between us,” the athletic director allegedly wrote. “Whenever you want $$$ and/or need something. As soon as you want, even tonight.”
Soon after, the boy told his mother, who reported the accusations to police. After receiving the report, Ferman said the DA’s office became “immediately involved” in the investigation.
“At that point, one of our detectives created a new Facebook identity and took over the boy’s identity and continued the communications with the coach, which were extremely graphic purporting to exchange sexual favors for things he would buy for the child,” she said.
After the detective’s first Facebook contact posing as the 11th grader on April 12, Murphy reportedly wasted little time trying to meet the boy in person.
In another message, the coach invites him over to his apartment to shop online for the “spikes and visor you wanted and anything else,” according to the criminal complaint.
Eventually, Murphy set a date to meet and drove to meet the juvenile Friday, April 15, at 10:30 a.m. in Bridgeport. But when he pulled up in the parking lot in a black Saturn expecting to rendezvous with the student, he was met by police and taken into custody.
Murphy was arraigned before District Judge Gallagher Friday and bail was set. The defendant is to have no contact with the victim, any person under the age of 18 or any person who is a student at Archbishop Carroll. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 26 at 9 a.m.
On Monday, school administrators sent a letter via email to school families informing them of the arrest, according to the Archdiocese’s website.
“The letter conveyed to parents how troubling this news is for the members of our school community,” wrote Mary E. Rochford, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “It also reaffirmed our pledge to parents that the prevention of child abuse and protection of children is our primary concern.”
The Office of Catholic Education of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia recognizes that this public notice may be painful to those who have been abused. Anyone needing assistance is urged to contact the Archdiocese’s Victim Assistance Office at 1-888-800-8780 or philavac@adphila.org
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