Coach cleared after probe

HURON — The police detective who allegedly mishandled a sex crimes investigation at McCormick Junior High School in 2019 also investigated an "inappropriate relationship" between a school volunteer and a Huron High School athlete in 2018. Matt Jacobs Screenshot/BCSN That's according to a report filed by Huron police Detective Matt Jacobs, who is also a contracted employee with the school district as an athletic coach. The student's mother had complained, the report states, and other parents in the district also were concerned. But the only person interviewed, according to the report, was the student-athlete, and the only names listed in the report are the student-athlete's and the volunteer. Jacobs spent one hour and 20 minutes on the 2018 investigation, the report indicates. Under fire The 2019 investigation Jacobs conducted at McCormick Junior High School involved three 13-year-olds. The families of the two victims filed lawsuits in county court contending school district officials failed to protect the victims after they reported the incidents involving the third student. The lawsuits also allege Jacobs compromised the 2019 investigation by failing to recognize his obvious conflicts since he is close friends with the suspect's family and was the suspect's wrestling coach. He also told the families to destroy the obscene photos and video the boy sent to the girls' cellphones, the lawsuits contend. Let's be friends The earlier investigation, the one Jacobs conducted in 2018, detailed the budding relationship between a volunteer and the student athlete. The volunteer would buy the student "clothes, concert tickets, Cavs tickets, and he even took him and (a friend) to Peak and Peak (a ski resort in western New York state)." They all three stayed in one hotel room, the report states. The volunteer also bought the student a car and opened a bank account for the student, the report states. But the relationship soured. The volunteer became "too controlling over (the student's) life," saying who the student could see or not see and dictating which college the student would attend after graduating from Huron High School, according to the report. The student, during the course of their relationship, learned about the practice of "grooming," the report states, and told Jacobs he began to wonder if that might be what was happening to him. They also spent time alone at the volunteer's home, often, nearly once a week, the student said. Jacobs did not ask about or provide any information about how long the student, who was 18 when the detective interviewed him in March 2018, and the volunteer had been friends. The volunteer was in his late 30s, according to the report. Put some clothes on There had never been any inappropriate physical contact, the student said, although the volunteer gave the student back rubs, sometimes when the student was shirtless. The volunteer also liked to "walk around and talk to players" when they were in the shower area of the locker room, according to the report. "If other (school personnel) had to talk with a player, they would yell out from the (other) room for the kid to come to the office when dressed," the student said, according to the report. No other interviews were documented in the three-page report. "Based on my interview with (the student), I found nothing (the volunteer) did was criminal," Jacobs wrote, in conclusion. The school principal was told about his findings, Jacobs wrote in the report. Lippert said Jacobs never consulted a prosecutor. "The potential victim, in other words the person who was interviewed, disclosed nothing that would qualify as a criminal act, therefore the investigation was closed," Lippert said. "... It was the decision of the Huron Police Department.