TNL Coach Released - Mistrial Declared

[Sam]

There is no evidence of that being a factor. You chastise those who condemn without having all the facts yet you make baseless accusations.

You mean to tell me that there is no evidence of people rushing to judgement on this board agiasnt this young man for some apparent reason? There is no evidence of a rush to judgement? Hmmm,Ok, I will give you that there is no direct evidence that specifically says that this is a racial thing, or any direct evidence that states that the rush to judgement of this young man on this board is based on the racial make up of the involved parties, I will concur that I just jumped to a conclusion based on what I construe as fact...oh wait a minute....sounds exactly like what this board is doing to this young man doesnt it? So why is it ok in one instance but not in the other? There is no evidence that proves this mans guilt yet it is ok for some folks to condem without having all the facts and ok for them to make baseless accusations? Why? The thing is allot of nasty things have been said about this coach, without any real evidence indicating this man did anything, great point demonboy, I could not have said it better myself.

Four jurors, a 17 year old girl, a prosecutor and at least a couple of detectives disagree.

[Getagrip55]

8 jurors, 11 jurors, a judge, 2 defense lawyers, a team of coaches, over 100 players, over 200 parents, and many more agree. Do the math!

[Sam]

8 jurors, 11 jurors, a judge, 2 defense lawyers, a team of coaches, over 100 players, over 200 parents, and many more agree. Do the math!

I don't think you want to get into the math....nobody found him Not Guilty. His attorney orchestrated a mistrial....I'm betting there are more in the softball community that believe he had sex with one of his players than don't believe it.

[Skarp]

There was no content from text messages to be entered into evidence. The phone company purges the text out of their system due to storage issues. The only thing available regarding text messages were the dates and time of texts sent from a particular phone.

For us to accept this as true, we would have to believe that early news reports, which directly quoted certain suggestive text messages, were constructed of whole cloth. It's much more believable that the evidence was excluded by the judge--which you likely wouldn't know as a mere courtroom observer.

If the judge excluded them as non-probative on the basis that authorship can't be established, that's an absolutely horrible ruling. By that reasoning emails would always have to be thrown out too...which plenty of corporate defendants would be ecstatic to hear. I also don't understand why the log of calls would be probative if their content is not.

Perhaps the judge hails from Boalt, where he learned that criminals are actually victims of the fascist state. (Sorry...had to cross-pollinate threads there )

[hotwheels]

It seems to me that even if I buy into the fact that some of you are convinced he's INNOCENT......Don't miss out on the FACT that at the very least, he's had improper contact and/or indecent conversation with a minor.....That is a fact and just because the texts weren't admissable in court doesn't mean it didn't happen....From what I gather from the information you've all provided, THE TEXTS DID HAPPEN......Whether or not he actually typed them out is a mystery.....unless your blind!! Don't ignore the facts!

[FPF1234]

If the judge excluded them as non-probative on the basis that authorship can't be established, that's an absolutely horrible ruling. By that reasoning emails would always have to be thrown out too...which plenty of corporate defendants would be ecstatic to hear. I also don't understand why the log of calls would be probative if their content is not.

Great point, do we know that this was the reason the judge excluded them? Where they actually excluded? Maybe there was additional information that the judge had that contributed to his or her decision, why assume the judge was incompetent? Or was it that the exact verbiage being used within these texts where not obtainable? Either way I can agree with you, I find that to be a bit puzzling, with all the technology you would think that the actual text of these messages could be re-generated some how. As for the news breaking the actual content of the message, again, are you saying that news stations, as well as newspapers don’t expand the truth, and or flat mis-report things to sensationalize them? If the actual text of these messages where never available and they where going purely off what someone told them wouldn’t that lend itself to the fact that this information would be less than accurate possibly?

[FPF1234]

THE TEXTS DID HAPPEN......Whether or not he actually typed them out is a mystery.....unless your blind!! Don't ignore the facts

Sure, the text happened, I believe it has been established that he texted this young lady, as well as his other players, and as well as his former players, everyone concedes that fact. But that fact alone does not make him guilty, until the actual language of these text messages is made available that directly indicates this man was either admitting to or discussing having sex with this young lady then the texts in and of themselves dont really prove anything. Dont get me wrong if this young man did these things then he should be severly punished, but until it is proven that he did them how can we sit back and condem the man for something that could very well be fabricated. Again, I worked with teens in a counselors role for years, I know what some of them are capable of especialy if they get caught up in a situation that snowballed so fast they where unable to stop it.

[Skarp]

If the judge excluded them as non-probative on the basis that authorship can't be established, that's an absolutely horrible ruling. By that reasoning emails would always have to be thrown out too...which plenty of corporate defendants would be ecstatic to hear. I also don't understand why the log of calls would be probative if their content is not.

Great point, do we know that this was the reason the judge excluded them? Where they actually excluded? Maybe there was additional information that the judge had that contributed to his or her decision, why assume the judge was incompetent? Or was it that the exact verbiage being used within these texts where not obtainable? Either way I can agree with you, I find that to be a bit puzzling, with all the technology you would think that the actual text of these messages could be re-generated some how. As for the news breaking the actual content of the message, again, are you saying that news stations, as well as newspapers don’t expand the truth, and or flat mis-report things to sensationalize them? If the actual text of these messages where never available and they where going purely off what someone told them wouldn’t that lend itself to the fact that this information would be less than accurate possibly?

I can only locate articles at this point that attribute the content of the messages and telephone conversations to "court records" (which would presumably include naked allegations contained in the girl's declaration). I thought I had seen articles that quoted direct text from the messages. If so, I can't find them now, and I may be misremembering. So it's possible that in fact no message content was available.

BTW: here's the defense attorney's theory on why the girl made up the allegations. You decide if the theory is believable:

The defense contended Facione couldn't get a full-ride scholarship to a Division I school for the accuser and she didn't know how to explain her failure as a player to her family. The accuser stopped going to practice, and needed an excuse, according to Prevost. She blamed her coach for harassing her. The evidence then snowballed into allegations of sexual misconduct, says Prevost. http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/sto ... 0ec6255923

But whether it's believable or not, without hard evidence supporting the girl's accusations--like text messages showing that they had an improper relationship, or a recorded phone conversation in which the existence of the relationship is made clear--the case is flimsy as hell.

[jofus]

I didn't say this guy was a child molester, I said that liberal judges let molesters off way too easy all the time. I haven't paid enough attention to this case to really have an informed opinion on whether he may have done anything suspect or not. Speaking of which, imho as a dad, there's a lot of behavior that could be inappropriate in this case without the two parties actually having sex. Do you really want your DD's coach flirting with her? I'm not saying this guy did or didn't do that, just in general. It seems some people on here think that if they didn't actually have sex, then he did nothing wrong.

Did anyone actually mention the college he is supposedly coaching at now? NC isn't that far away.....

[Sam]

From the original post in March:

By Matthew Rodriguez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 4, 2008

The coach of a North County traveling girls softball team has been arrested on suspicion of having sex with a 17-year-old player.


Christopher Facione of Carlsbad is charged with two felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Facione is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Superior Court.
Facione, 37, is the founder of The Next Level Athletics, an Encinitas-based sports organization for athletes 6 and up. In addition to the girls softball team, the organization has offered clinics and camps in other sports such as football and basketball.

Facione, who grew up in Orange County, played baseball at the University of California Berkeley and professionally in the minor leagues. A phone message left for him yesterday wasn't returned.

According to the declaration in support of an arrest warrant, Facione had sex with one of his softball players twice at his Carlsbad home. The first incident occurred on or about Oct. 2, 2007, the complaint says. The second between Oct. 7 and Oct. 20, 2007.

On Jan. 18, the declaration says, Facione spoke with the player, whose doctor thought she might have contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Facione assured her that he routinely gets tested, the declaration says.

After the call, Facione sent the girl text messages, including one saying he missed her and asking her out to dinner, according to the declaration.

It is the policy of The San Diego Union-Tribune not to identify possible victims of sexual abuse.

A warrant for Facione's arrest was issued Feb. 20, court records show. He was arrested Thursday and later was released on $100,000 bail.





Those are the text messages that were excluded.....