Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Nicholas R. Bennett appears via video from Shawano County Jail on Monday seated beside attorney Steven Weerts for a court hearing before Judge William Kussel Jr. on charges of using a computer to facilitate a sex crime and attempted child enticement.
A coach for a traveling basketball camp who allegedly tried to meet a 13-year-old boy for sex was ordered held on a $100,000 cash bond after an initial appearance in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on Monday.
Nicholas R. Bennett, 23, of Portland, Oregon, could face a maximum 40 years in prison and $100,000 fine if found guilty of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, and 25 years and a $100,000 fine if convicted of attempted child enticement.
Bennett is a basketball coach with Pro Shot Shooting Systems, which tours basketball camps and clinics to various venues across the U.S., including schools.
“It seems Mr. Bennett works mostly with children in these basketball clinics,” District Attorney Greg Parker said during Bennett’s court appearance Monday.
The company held a basketball camp at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Shawano on Oct. 13.
According to the criminal complaint, Bennett struck up an acquaintance with a 13-year-old boy during the camp. The boy stayed after the camp was over to continue practicing basketball with Bennett.
Bennett asked for the boy’s cell phone number and began texting him the next day, according to the criminal complaint.
The texts came to the attention of the boy’s mother, who contacted the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department,
She told detectives that the text messages were at first supportive of the young man’s athletic talent but gradually seemed suggestive.
The complaint states there had also been some physical contact between Bennett and the boy. It states the boy hurt his wrist at one point while playing basketball and Bennett kissed it to make it better.
Sheriff’s detectives took over the electronic communications with Bennett on Thursday.
As the conversations between Bennett and detectives continued, the texts became more suggestive and eventually sexually explicit, according to the complaint.
Bennett eventually suggested a meeting on Friday night.
Detectives agreed to the meeting and took Bennett into custody when he arrived.
According to the criminal complaint, Bennett had traveled to Shawano with another man, Paul Hoover, who is listed as Pro Shot Shooting System’s founder on the company’s website.
The complaint states Bennett asked Hoover if they could stay in Shawano overnight on their way from Minneapolis to a meeting in Green Bay. Bennett also asked Hoover if he could have his own motel room, according to the complaint. Hoover also said he had a friend in town he wanted to visit.
Sheriff’s department Detective Sgt. Gordon Kowaleski said Hoover was cooperative with authorities during the investigation. Hoover told authorities he knew nothing about Bennett’s activities.
Hoover could not be reached for comment.
Kowaleski said the company has taken its tour to several locations since last week.
“In the past week since being in Shawano they had been in Minneapolis, they were heading to Green Bay, going to Madison, back to Appleton and then somewhere in Illinois,” he said.
Bennett is one of six people arrested by Shawano County authorities over the past three weeks on charges of using a computer to facilitate a sex crime. In most cases, suspects were captured after detectives placed or responded to Internet ads posing as a child.
“This is unlike many of the other cases we have of this nature. Here there was an actual child involved,” Parker said at Bennett’s court hearing Monday.
Parker said Bennett didn’t appear to have a previous criminal record. But in asking for the $100,000 cash bond, Parker noted that Bennett is transient.
Judge William Kussel Jr. agreed with the bond request, citing the severity of the allegations and Bennett’s transient nature.
Bennett is scheduled to be back in court Monday for an adjourned initial appearance.