Softball coach gets probation for ‘sexting’ teen

A youth softball coach was sentenced to five years of probation after admitting he sent lewd text messages to a 15-year-old girl.

Robert Keith Payne, 36, of Cumming, must also register as a sex offender and can no longer have unsupervised visits with juveniles after pleading guilty to enticing a child for indecent purposes. Payne’s victim was a player for Stealth Softball, a travel league based in Cumming, where he worked.

“That is how he makes his living so there would be some concerns about what type of contact he had moving forward,” Milton police Capt. Shawn McCarty told Channel 2 Action News. “Anytime you can get someone to plea to something and take responsibility for it, your investigation has been successful.”

Police began investigating when the teen’s father reported that Payne had been sending text messages to the teen, according to an incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“What if a married couple asked you to join them,” one of the messages from Payne said, according to police.

Payne was arrested April 26, 2012, and released the following month after posting $50,000 bond, Fulton County jail records show.

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