Coach Jailed on Porn Charges, by Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel, October 7, 2006

Coach Jailed on Porn Charges

By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
October 7, 2006

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-sexcoach0706oct07,0,5514142.story?coll=orl-news-headlines

When deputies showed up at Orlando Christian Prep on Thursday night to arrest a revered coach on possession of child pornography, William "Buck" Lanham told them he was "in love" with the former player shown having sex with him in home movies.

The former player -- who said she started having sex with Lanham when she was 14 and is now 23 -- reported the relationship to the Orange County sheriff's sex-crimes unit in June.

"She didn't want this to happen to any other kids," said Sgt. Rich Mankewich.

William "Buck" Lanham, one of the state's top high school basketball coaches, has been charged with possession of child pornography depicting a former player.

Lanham, one of Florida's top high-school coaches, was charged with possession of child pornography and possession of marijuana.

Videotapes of Lanham having sex with the girl, who attended Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando when Lanham coached there in the late 1990s, were seized shortly before his arrest Thursday evening, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Mankewich, head of the sheriff's sex-crimes unit, said Friday that Lanham couldn't be charged with having sex with a minor because the statute of limitations had expired. But Mankewich said he thinks other teen athletes may have been victimized at Bishop Moore or Orlando Christian Prep, where Lanham, 47, led the 2005 team to the Class 1A state championship.

"It's our experience that more victims will come forward in this type of case," Mankewich said.

2 coaches have criminal records

Lanham's arrest raises questions about how carefully private schools in Orlando scrutinize prospective coaches.

Court records show Lanham, who has been coaching girls basketball at Orlando Christian Prep since 2002, served time in state prison after being busted in Orlando in 1988 with 4 ounces of cocaine. Sentenced to 3 years in prison and 26 years of probation, the future coach -- who used the alias "Louie Rivera" -- joined prison ministries and earned an early release.

Lanham's criminal record became an issue at Bishop Moore in 2001 when one of his players accused the coach of throwing her to the ground, smashing a chair and grabbing her arm during a practice. Lanham resigned the next day, according to the state Department of Corrections.

On Friday, the sheriff's sex-crimes unit discovered court papers filed by the Bishop Moore player's mother, who accused Lanham of hiding in bushes late at night outside the family's home to peer in the windows, Mankewich said. The girl in that incident is not the one in the videotapes, he said.

Lanham's younger brother, Jeffery, 46, who also coached basketball at Bishop Moore and now coaches at OCP, also has been convicted of burglary and stalking, court records show. He could not be reached for comment.

Officials at OCP, Bishop Moore and the Diocese of Orlando Office of Schools did not return calls seeking information about their hiring practices.

"We've been advised not to comment because it is an ongoing investigation," said OCP admissions director Shelly Brown. "We have not heard of any formal charges from anyone but the media."

Brown was the lone school administrator on campus early Friday afternoon.

The school was closed for the day Friday, and the parking lot was nearly empty. A teacher, who didn't give his name, said the faculty spent Thursday and Friday at an off-campus workshop. The school's lawyers told faculty members not to speak about their colleague's arrest, he said.

Arrest upsets Lanham's players

On Friday evening, the father of one of Lanham's players said the arrest had devastated the team.

"The kids, they like Buck," said Ken Mitchell, whose 15-year-old daughter, Michelle, is a guard and one of the team's best players. "It is sad. I could tell Michelle was down today. Those kids, they're a pretty close team. My heart, it's just broken for the kids."

Since he joined the OCP staff in 2002, Lanham's girls basketball teams have had a 108-25 record and gone to the state high-school Final Four three times. He coached at Bishop Moore from 1996 through the 2001 season.

Detectives found Lanham in the gym at OCP on Thursday evening and arrested him before his off-season team, AFC, played a recreational-league game.

The former player told detectives that she first had sex with Lanham when she was 14 years old and in eighth grade at St. John Vianney Catholic School. She said they had sex 60 to 100 times in hotels and the coach's apartment, according to arrest records. When Lanham joined the staff at Bishop Moore he convinced the teen's parents that she should transfer to the school, Mankewich said.

Detectives initially doubted they could make a case against Lanham because the statute of limitations on consensual sex by a minor ends when the victim reaches 21, said Mankewich. But then the former player told them that Lanham twice had videotaped their sex acts, and detectives set up a tape-recorded phone call between her and Lanham.

"We know through experience these guys never get rid of their tapes," said Mankewich. "They save them as trophies."

The information was used to obtain a search warrant Thursday for an apartment on South Pointe Drive that the coach shares with his brother, according to the arrest report.

In William Lanham's bedroom, detectives broke open a locked metal box and found eight videocassettes. Two of the tapes showed the coach having sex with the former player, which he later admitted at sheriff's headquarters, according to the arrest report.

Detectives also found and seized more than 1 ounce of marijuana and two computers that are being examined to determine whether they contain child pornography, according to the arrest report.

Lanham remained in the Orange County Jail on Friday night. He had posted $25,000 bail but will not be released until a home-detention monitoring unit can be set up in his home.

Andrea Adelson, Andrew B. Carter, Buddy Collings and Pedro Ruz Gutierrez contributed to this report. Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached be at 407-420-5257 or hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com.