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Former AAU coach allegedly had 'over a hundred' sexual images of children

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When someone is outed as a sicko in possession of child pornography, the natural reaction is “this could not possibly get much worse.”

Well, for AAU coach Greg Stephen, things are about to get much worse.

Stephen, who was under investigation for child pornography and molestation, had “electronic property” seized by authorities, and as they have gone through the material, the sheer scope of Stephen’s alleged crimes boggle the mind and roil the stomach.

The Des Moines Register reports that investigators turned up sexually explicit photos and videos of more than 100 boys — neatly categorized in folders labeled with their names.

Furthermore, Stephen allegedly engaged in “catfishing” — a colloquialism for posing as a young, attractive girl in order to manipulate boys and young men.

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According to police, he ran a con common to catfishers in which he’d find images of attractive girls online, pose as them, then through social media send the boys nude photos of girls in a reciprocal arrangement.

Stephen is the former co-director of the Barnstormers, an AAU team based in Monticello, Iowa, that plays in the Adidas Gauntlet AAU league.

John Lamb, director of the Beyond Ball club in Des Moines, confirmed to the Register that several of the boys in his charge have spoken with the FBI regarding Stephen’s alleged crimes.

The father of one of the boys told the newspaper that FBI agents came to his family’s home earlier in June because “they wanted to show us things.” Among those things were photos they believed to be of the man’s son.

Is 50 years in jail for Stephen too lenient if he's found guilty?

The father said agents told him they found Stephen had “over a hundred” file folders containing footage of naked boys.

The man’s son also said Stephen performed a sexual act on him while at a camp last summer.

Stephen was arrested in March and charged with one count of transportation of child pornography, to which he pleaded not guilty.

The Register reported he also admitted to having secretly filmed three of his players between the ages of 12 and 14 to “monitor adolescent growth and development.”

One boy who blocked Stephen’s fake Snapchat account before he could become a victim described the con, according to the report.

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“(The accounts) would call you cute and then say, ‘Oh, can I see this and that?'” the player said. “They’d bribe you by trying to send certain stuff of them. … (The account) would act as this girl, ask you to send him pictures, ask you to take your shirt off and send pictures, go in the mirror, send pictures of your parts.”

The boy said his teammates discussed the social media come-ons.

“Every kid that played on any of the teams knew exactly what these accounts were,” he said. “And we were all struck, like, ‘This is really weird. It’s only Barnstormers kids (that the accounts follow). It’s all of us.’ It was like, ‘Wow. She’s added you, right? She’s added you, right?’ But we never had any idea or clue that this is what it really was, or the magnitude of it.”

The latest round of charges includes five counts of sexual exploitation of minors, one of possessing child pornography and one of transportation of child pornography.

Sexual exploitation of a minor is a Class C felony in Iowa; five counts, if convicted on all of them, carry a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison and a fine of no less than $5,000 nor more than $250,000.

But in a just world, people who commit crimes like this would hang at dawn in the town square.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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