Former New Jersey Catholic H.S. Coach Denies Sexting Boys

The former baseball coach at St. Rose High School, a parochial school in Belmar, N.J., is facing charges of carrying on sexually explicit conversations with underage boys in his charge and encouraging them to send such messages to him.

The case, which highlights the growing use, misuse and general all-around weirdness of "sexting," involves Bart McInerney, 43. The longtime baseball coach carried on the conversations with a dozens boys between 15 and 17 from 2001 until he was arrested in 2007, according to a report in APP.com, a Jersey Shore local Internet news site.

State Superior Court Judge Anthony Mellaci ruled that any texts sent to someone over 18 wasn't actionable. The conversations discussed masturbation. The coach allegedly asked the boys how often they masturbated.

The prosecution called several witnesses and investigators and St. Rose's athletic director. Richard Stainton, former St. Rose's former athletic director, admitted that there was no background check done on McInerney, nor was there a resume on file. He did insist that he had told all coaches to be careful of one-to-one conversations behind closed door because of how they might be perceived.

The Newark Star-Ledge reported that among the former players to come forward were two former students who claimed the coach offered them money for text messages about their sexual experiences.

Like other witnesses, the boys (now men) said that conversations began with discussions about baseball or other non-controversial topics. Soon, however, McInerney would ask them whether they had had sex with their girlfriends or, the paper reported, "indirectly encouraged them to masturbate as a way to prevent them from having premarital sex."

McInerney's defense? He says he was soliciting the remarks as a way to get the message out that the teens shouldn't be having sex. He denied paying or offering to pay for text messages.

One witness, however, told the court he was offered $1 or $2 per message, with bonuses. "He said the coach instructed him to send a coded text every time he masturbated indicating how long the act took and how it felt," the Star-Ledger reported. "The witness said he earned between $500 and $600 in the two years he complied with McInerney's request before his arrest in November 2007."

Another former student said he was offered $200 for a month of texts. He said the conversations were disorienting. "I was unsure about everything," he said.

St. Rose's gives its its mission thusly: "Fortified by a strong Catholic, Christian foundation, students are able to confidently assume adulthood with its responsibilities and privileges while addressing the moral and ethical challenges of a technological society."