Oklahoma Junior High Baseball Coach Arrested For Pegging His Kids With Baseballs
(Source) A Silo Junior High baseball coach has been charged with seven counts of injury to a minor child. Roy Martin West, 42, of Durant, was arrested and charged Tuesday afternoon. He had his initial appearance in Bryan County District Court. He was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond with a preliminary hearing set for Oct. 17. West had been under investigation by the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office since when during the spring semester, parents said he had thrown baseballs at players when he was not happy with their performances.
The affidavit of probable cause released Tuesday accuses West of “striking said minor children in the back, legs, arms, or lower torso with a baseball as punishment for inadequate performance while said defendant was a person responsible for the care and welfare of such minor child as a public school coach.” West, who has been a teacher and coach at Silo for 15 years, was placed on administrative leave by the school district shortly after the April 9 incident. His attorney, Joe White, Jr., of Oklahoma City, said he was recently made aware of the seven charges. “In no way, shape or form would Roy West ever intend to hurt a child,” White said. “I think in the process of a jury trial, that will be made clear.”
“Multiple children did come forward displaying substantial bruises to their legs and arms, consistent with having been struck by a baseball thrown with significant force,” the affidavit states. Another investigator recorded corrective actions which included punitive running and push-ups. “Later that corrective action became simply standing, facing away from the coach and as students described, ‘get pegged,’” states the affidavit. “One witness statement described the students involved as being defenseless and without helmets or bats to protect them from injury.” Another investigator from the sheriff’s office reported he was “met with resistance from some of the parents,” according to the affidavit. “Investigator (Nathan) Calloway advised that some of the parents stated they did not wish for their child to be involved in this investigation,” the affidavit states. “They stated that their child did not have any injuries, and that they felt that Coach West had done nothing wrong.” However, the affidavit goes on to state more parents came forward with their children to make voluntary statements, corroborating the statements of those children allegedly injured by the coach’s actions.
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Look, I’m not going to sit here and say that Roy West (great baseball coach name by the way) is right because no parent wants to see their kid come home with a bunch of bruises. But I will say this, you know who won’t be afraid of crowding the plate and taking away a pitcher’s strike zone? You know who won’t be worried about getting skulled when they take away the inside of the plate? Every single one of these kids. Because once you’ve seen a fastball from Roy West you’ve seen it all. So the question is are a couple of bruises and a few bad memories worth being awesome at baseball and being really popular in high school and being the first one of your friends to get their dick sucked and fucking all the hot sluts and getting invited to every party ever? I don’t know, you tell me.