{"id":11984,"date":"2012-04-18T08:43:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T15:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=11984"},"modified":"2012-04-21T17:17:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-22T00:17:36","slug":"trial-opens-for-former-pe-ell-coach-accused-of-sex-crimes-with-teen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=11984","title":{"rendered":"Trial opens for former Pe Ell coach accused of sex crimes with teen"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHEHALIS – After repeated delays, the case of the Pe Ell softball coach accused of sex crimes involving a teenage team member is in court for a trial.<\/p>\n

\"2011.1129.todd.phelps.small_2\"<\/a>

Todd D. Phelps<\/p><\/div>\n

Todd D. Phelps, 52, is charged with third-degree rape as well as second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor in connection with encounters last spring and summer with a 16-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

They are both residents of the small West Lewis County town.<\/p>\n

The prosecution told a story to jurors yesterday of a man who gradually seduced a girl already troubled with low self esteem and depression.<\/p>\n

Phelps’ defense attorney spoke of a coach who became close to her because he was worried because she was cutting on herself and might even commit suicide.<\/p>\n

“At no time did Todd commit or even think his relationship was inappropriate,” Defense attorney Don Blair told the jury.<\/p>\n

It took most of yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court to whittle down almost 70 potential jurors to a panel of 12 with two alternates.<\/p>\n

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Debra Eurich spoke for 40 minutes, telling jurors what they would hear in the following three days.<\/p>\n

The incident of sexual misconduct occurred on or about April 2 of last year, while Phelps was employed by the high school as coach, Eurich said.<\/p>\n

The alleged rape happened on July 27, she said, after Phelps had been forced to quit his job.<\/p>\n

Eurich said Phelps talked her into breaking up with her boyfriend and then drove a wedge between her and her family, in attempts to isolate her.<\/p>\n

“When you hear all the evidence, watch the witnesses, there’s not going to be any other verdict than guilty,” Eurich said.<\/p>\n

Blair took only about 10 minutes in the Chehalis courtroom for opening statements.<\/p>\n

He pointed out jurors would not see the emails or texts or any “hard” evidence.<\/p>\n

His client was at work at Weyerhaeuser at the time the July incident supposedly occurred, Blair said. Until the girl learned that and changed her story, he said.<\/p>\n

“What I’m trying to say is this; I don’t know why she is saying these things about Todd,” he said. “It could be because Todd revealed a bunch of her secrets to her parents, trying to get help for her.”<\/p>\n

The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. today.
\n\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

For background, read “Former Pe Ell coach faces charge of third-degree rape of teenage student” from Tuesday November 29,\u00a0 2011, here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – After repeated delays, the case of the Pe Ell softball coach accused of sex crimes involving a teenage team member is in court for a trial. Todd D. Phelps, 52, is charged with third-degree rape as well as second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-11984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11984"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11987,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984\/revisions\/11987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}