NCAA referee sentenced for molesting 14-year-old boy in Cobb
A longtime NCAA women’s basketball referee pleaded guilty Friday to molesting a 14-year-old boy at a Cobb County hotel.
Wesley Dean, 58, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years probation, according to a Cobb district attorney’s office news release.
The boy’s mother found inappropriate text messages between her son and Dean, police said.
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The teen told investigators the Cartersville man drove him to Atlanta Marriott Northwest at Galleria hotel during October 2016 and that they engaged in sexual activity.
Security video showed they were at the hotel together that night, prosecutors said. Dean was arrested Feb. 5, 2017 and confessed. He's been in jail since.
Katie Gropper, who prosecuted the case, said in the news release that Dean “preyed upon the vulnerability and insecurity of a teenage boy” by giving him gifts and making him feel cared for.
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Dean was previously named a Naismith women's official of the year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
He worked NCAA Tournament games from 1994 through 2014, the Associated Press previously reported. He officiated games in the Big East, Atlantic 10 along with the American Athletic and Southern conferences this past season.
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Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.
