She said he was hired despite those incidents because they weren't recent and he provided "thorough explanations for both." Permetti said the district knew he had been involved in two previous assaults. Permetti said Berry's application to the district, submitted in June, showed that he spent the 2010-2011 school year coaching an unspecified club team after previously working as a public high school teacher and coach in La Joya, Mission and McAllen.īerry received "glowing references" from his previous employers, she said. The affidavit also says Berry has a criminal history with "several assaultive incidents." The student's father told police that Berry, who once coached high school basketball in the Rio Grande Valley, recruited young basketball players from Mexico to the U.S. Police were alerted when Berry tried to file a criminal mischief charge against the student for pouring popcorn all over the coach's apartment, according to the affidavit. The charge is a second-degree felony and carries a sentence of two to 20 years in prison. 1 that specifically makes forced labor prosecutable as human trafficking. Police spokesman Kevin Deaver said Berry was charged under a state law that went into effect Sept. The student has since withdrawn from school, she said. Permetti said Berry was listed as the student's legal guardian when the student enrolled in August. He's now on unpaid leave, and the district is in the process of terminating him, she said.
28, Lewisville school district spokeswoman Karen Permetti said.
Police say the student's parents paid Berry $300 a month for their son to live with him, attend Lewisville High School and play basketball there.īerry, 46, had been working as a teacher and coach at the school for about a month when he was arrested on Sept.
Lewisville police claim the coach, Theodore Berry, repeatedly threatened the 16-year-old student because the student wouldn't sell gourmet popcorn to help fund a club team operated by the coach. LEWISVILLE (AP) - An assistant basketball coach at Lewisville High School has been charged with human trafficking for allegedly forcing a student from Mexico to work against his will while living with him, police said Friday.
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