Former coach faces life in prison after conviction on sex charges

Kim Smith

Thursday, March 29, 2001 | 11:37 a.m.

A 42-year-old former Little League coach faces life in prison after he was convicted Wednesday on more than 30 counts of sexual abuse involving seven boys.

The jury deliberated about five hours over two days before rejecting Garen Pearson's contention that what happened between him and the youngsters was "consensual."

The jury convicted Pearson on 23 counts of sexual assault of a minor, 14 lewdness with a minor counts and two open or gross lewdness counts. All except one of the open and gross lewdness counts are felonies; the remaining count is a gross misdemeanor.

District Judge Michael Cherry must decide on May 25 whether to run Pearson's sentences at the same time or one after the other. The sexual assault and lewdness charges each carries a life sentence. However, parole becomes possible after 10 years in lewdness cases, after 20 years in sexual assault cases.

After the verdict was reached the 12-year-old who came forward and broke the case said, "I hope he gets what he did to us."

The boy's mother expressed relief.

"I'm just glad it's over and he cannot harm a child again. If he ever got out he would do it again," she said.

Pearson showed little reaction as each of the verdicts was read. His attorneys said he was not surprised.

Pearson's charges stemmed as far back as 1994 and involved seven children, four of them youth league baseball players and most between 10 and 12.

According to the boys, Pearson involved them in a variety of games that resulted in sex acts.

One of the games involved flipping quarters and calling "heads" or "tails." The player who called the majority of the quarters correctly had to order Pearson or another child to engage in a sex act.

Pearson's defense attorneys, Catherine Woolf and Drew Christensen, told jurors Pearson regrets what happened but believes the boys were willing participants.

According to Nevada's child sexual assault laws, prosecutors must show the acts were committed against the victims' will or "under conditions in which the perpetrator knows or should have known the victim was mentally or physically incapable of resisting or doesn't understand the nature of the conduct."

Christensen told jurors Pearson should be convicted only of lewdness with a child because the boys clearly knew what they were doing was wrong and yet continued doing it.

Prosecutors contended Pearson brainwashed the children and they either were incapable of resisting or didn't understand what was happening.

Pearson was arrested in April 1999 after a boy, on his 11th birthday, told his parents what had been happening. Twenty-four of the 39 counts on which Pearson was convicted pertained to that child.