A Fulton County judge denied bond Friday for a youth softball coach arrested and charged with sending sexually suggestive text messages to an underage former player, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Robert Keith Payne is accused of sending several text messages to a 15-year-old girl who once played for him on the Georgia Stealth traveling softball team, Milton police said.
“Any type of sexual enticement to any minor is illegal,” Milton police Capt. Shawn McCarty told Channel 2. The messages, McCarty said, “were very suggestive in sexual nature."
Police said the victim in the case alerted them to the text messages last week.
The 35-year-old Payne was taken into custody Thursday morning at his Cumming home and charged with enticing a child for indecent purposes, police said. He was booked into the Fulton County Jail.
At a bond hearing Friday, a judge denied a request by Payne's attorney for $10,000 bond, Channel 2 reported.
According to the Georgia Stealth website, the organization is a girls fast-pitch softball team based in Cumming. It is made up of under-14 girls from north Fulton and Forsyth counties and is run by Payne and his wife, Channel 2 reported.
Jon Rife, Payne’s attorney, said Friday that his client denies the allegations against him.
"He's upset. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before," Rife told Channel 2. "Accusations of this nature against someone who does [the] kind of work he does are devastating, devastating to his family, and we look forward to getting into court and arguing the case."
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