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WESTPORT, Conn. (UPDATED 3:40 p.m.) Staples High School assistant freshmen football coach Michael Pickering turned himself in to Westport police Thursday afternoon on a warrant charging him with three counts of risk of injury to a minor in connection with a porn investigation launched Wednesday, police said.
Pickering, 40, of Norwalk, is accused of providing members of the football team with access codes to a pornographic website. He was released after posting a $50,000 bond and is scheduled for arraignment at Norwalk Superior Court on Nov. 28, Capt. Sam Arciola said.
According to his biography on the Staples football website, Pickering works in the maintenance department at Staples and has coached the Wreckers for the past nine seasons. He also coaches freshmen lacrosse.
Pickering has been suspended from his positions, Arciola said. In a brief statement Wednesday, Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon said the coach, who had not yet been identified, was removed from contact with students and players.
The investigation began Wednesday morning after the Westport Police Detective Bureau was alerted to the allegations by an email from a news organization. The Board of Education was contacted and police were informed that school officials had received word that a freshmen football coach had given players access to a pornographic website, Arciola said.
Inklings, the Staples High School newspaper, reported that a student not on the football team alerted school officials to the situation after hearing about it.
During the investigation, members of the freshmen football team were interviewed by detectives and three confirmed that Pickering gave them a password to access a pornographic site, Arciola said.
He stated there had been some issues within the team itself in which he was trying to, in one form or another, create camaraderie, Arciola said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant Wednesday night and seized computers belonging to Pickering, who declined to be interviewed by police, as per advice from his attorney, Arciola said.
Since the matter is an ongoing police investigation, school officials Thursday deferred questions to the police department.
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