Court Of Appeals Rejects Excessive Plea Of Former Basketball Youth Coach Facing Life Sentence

The efforts of a former Iowa youth basketball coach to have his 180-year sentence trimmed down have failed. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument raised by Gregory Stephen who is charged with sexually exploiting more than 400 boys over a span of 20 years.

The 45-year-old batted that the life sentence was excessive since he did not kill or physically injure his victims. Stephen pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation and pornography charges after he was charged with molesting boys on at least 15 occasions from 1999 to 2018.

Stephen used to handle the Iowan Barnstormers which was backed by Adidas. The team competed nationally and some of the teenagers he handled went on to get college scholarships. However, the dark side of what went on behind that came out of the open when a digital collection that included thousands of sexual images of his players and friends was discovered.

It was Stephen’s former brother-in-law who found a secret recording device while he was remodeling the former coach’s home in Monticello. He immediately surrendered the device to the police.

The 45-year-old enticed his players to do lewd acts, including him dressing up as a teenage girl. He convinced them to send videos of them masturbating aside from secretly recording others undressing in bathrooms in hotels and his home, Fox News reported.

Investigators raided his home and found a hard drive that contained more than 400 file folders, each with the name of a different boy.

The court also stated that the actions of his brother-in-law did not violate Stephen’s rights. Also, he was not acting as a government agent since he did so out of concern of Stephen recording boys.

In response to Stephen’s request, Circuit judge Raymond Gruender wrote that his argument grossly downplays the seriousness and magnitude of his offense. Stephen was sentenced to the maximum possible sentence in 2019 by district judge C.J. Williams, pointing out how his acts brought harm to the children was ‘incalculable and profound’ and radiated to their families.

The lawsuit is set for trial in January 2022, absent a settlement.