Soccer Coach Arrested For Sending Inappropriate Messages To Jenks Girl

Jenks Police arrested a well-known soccer coach this week. Friday morning, officers booked 29-year-old Blake Lewis into the Tulsa County jail.

Police say he is accused of sending inappropriate Facebook messages to a 14-year-old girl, then tried to meet her in person.  

Police say the girl in this case received messages from Lewis on Facebook about two months ago that concerned her parents. Her parents then contacted Jenks Police. Investigators looked at the messages and talked to the Tulsa County DA who decided the situation warranted further investigation.

Police said one of their officers who has experience in this sort of communication, took over the girl's Facebook page. Messages were exchanged between Lewis and what he thought was the girl for the next two months, they said.

Those messages included photos of himself, without a shirt in his bed and shower and in his underwear, according to police. They said he asked the girl to send him the same.  

An affidavit says Lewis discussed meeting her in person to give her massages, kisses, holding each other and taking a shower together. 

A couple of days ago, police decided to have a meeting to set up a sting operation.

Police said Lewis thought the girl's mother was out of town so he went to her apartment complex to meet her but what he found instead was Jenks Police.

"A little bit disbelief. He contends he did nothing wrong. That is part of the trial process when that will be determined. We felt we had enough evidence to make an arrest at the time, so we did," said Officer Mike Gauldin.  

Police now have a warrant to search Lewis' cell phone. They say they are going to look to see if there are potentially other young victims Lewis was talking with, and they want to hear from any girl who may have been receiving similar messages. 

Police say a lot of girls don't understand the danger when someone older is messaging them and wanting to meet them, but - bad things can happen.

"Regardless of what the intentions are initially, you set up an environment where you're alone with her and things happen past that that are wrong, illegal and dangerous," Officer Gauldin said.

Jenks Police said Lewis coaches for the Tulsa Soccer Club and also owns a training company called Premier Skills Training. 

Police booked Blake Lewis into jail on complaints of lewd proposal to a minor and soliciting a minor to perform lewd acts.

Jail records show he bonded out of jail around 2 p.m.Friday. Bond was set at $40,000 with a court appearance set for November 13.

The Tulsa Soccer Club tells me it fired Lewis on Friday as soon as it heard of his arrest and the Oklahoma Soccer Association has suspended Lewis' coaching license indefinitely, so he can't coach anywhere in the nation for the time being.

The leaders say they were as shocked as anyone else and feel for the girl and her family and say they don't want the actions of one coach to reflect poorly on all their other coaches. They say no one filed a formal complaint on Lewis or brought them any evidence of him displaying inappropriate behavior.

They say they will put their standards and integrity of their coaches up against any sports organization in Oklahoma. They say Lewis passed a background check when he started with them and again in January when he returned to coaching.