Sex Abuse Victim Files Lawsuit against Former Coach

By F.T. Norton
Star News
January 13, 2012

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120112/ARTICLES/120119887?Title=Sex-abuse-victim-files-lawsuit-against-former-coach

A former Wilmington youth basketball coach who was sentenced to short prison terms in both North Carolina and New York for sexually abusing an autistic female player in 2008 is being sued by the victim.

Court documents filed in August indicate that defendants Freddie Lamont Wilson, the now-defunct Southeastern North Carolina Youth Basketball Association he founded and Grace Harbor Church have until Jan. 30 to answer a complaint seeking a jury trial filed on behalf of the now-19-year-old victim.

Her name is being withheld because the StarNews does not name victims of sex crimes.

The complaint, which asks for damages in excess of $5 million for inflicting severe and permanent traumatic, mental, psychological and emotional injuries, alleges negligence on behalf of the basketball group and Grace Harbor Church for which the group was an outreach ministry.

The lawsuit claims they failed to protect the girl because the youth group and church had "knowledge that Wilson had dangerous sexual propensities involving children," they "failed to properly investigate and/or disclose (their) awareness of facts regarding Wilson that created a likely potential for harm and actively concealing (their) knowledge of Wilson's propensities" and they breached their duty by hiring Wilson and giving him unfettered access to children.

The lawsuit seeks damages against Wilson for travel with intent to engage in sexual conduct and coercion and enticement of sexual activity.

Wilson, 64, was arrested in 2008 after the then-16-year-old girl's father found sexually explicit letters Wilson had written to her.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a minimum term of 17 months to a maximum of 2 1/2 years in prison. He served about a year and was released in February 2010.

In June 2010, Wilson was arrested on a Nassau County, N.Y. warrant charging him with rape in the third degree. During a trip to New York with the basketball group, Wilson had sex with the victim. The charge in New York was considered rape because the age of consent there is 17 years old, rather than in North Carolina where it's 16 years old.

Wilson pleaded guilty to two counts of rape in the third degree in March and was sentenced in June to one year in prison on each count and $5,000 in fines. A nine-year protection order was issued against him on behalf of the victim. He served 436 days in the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadows, N.Y. and was released in September, Chris Munzing, spokesman for the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, said Thursday.

Attempts to reach Wilson, who is listed on the North Carolina sex offender registry as living in Wilmington, were unsuccessful Thursday. A phone number for his address on the registry was disconnected.

F.T. Norton: 343-2070

Contact: Fran.Norton@StarNewsOnline.com7