OGDEN -- Despite the fact the teenage victim appears to be recanting, prosecutors are going to take a former Ben Lomond High School swim coach to trial next month on sexual abuse charges.
Trial dates of Dec. 14-16 were confirmed Tuesday in 2nd District Court for Jamie Waite, 35, regarding a sexual relationship alleged with a then-17-year-old member of the swim team.
Waite was a volunteer coach until the charges were filed last spring.
A week ago, the listed victim in the case, now 18, sent a letter to Judge Scott Hadley, who will preside over the trial.
"I would like to state that I would like to see it through that the prosecution is dropped," the letter reads. "I would like not to pursue her being charged.
"I do feel like I was cohersed (sic) into make (sic) the statements that were made. I would just like to see the whole thing ended."
Deputy Weber County Attorney Teral Tree said he does not consider the letter a recanting of the teen's prior statements of 10 or more sexual acts with Waite.
"Read it carefully," Tree said after Tuesday's hearing.
Waite's defense attorney, Jim Retallick, said he knew nothing of the letter's origins and has never talked to the teen except during cross examination at Waite's preliminary hearing in June.
Retallick has always maintained the boy's testimony was coerced by police. The teen testified in June that he first told police he'd had no sexual contact with Waite.
Retallick, after Tuesday's hearing, said he believed the teen has been threatened with perjury charges if he changes his story again.
"It certainly wasn't made by me, if it happened," Tree said of Retallick's claimed perjury threat.
Tree said the origin of the teen's letter is being investigated, as is that of a similar letter to the judge written the same day by another teenage friend of Waite's.
Tree said he finds it suspicious that both letters have similar misspellings of the word coerced.
The second letter reads, "I would like this case to be dropped, because I was used as leverage in a statement that wasn't true that the cops used to coheres (sic) (the victim) into make (sic) the statements about Jamie Waite."
Tree said the letter is the first mention of the second teen in the case. "All I can say is, we're investigating it."
Waite is charged with four second-degree felony counts of forcible sex abuse. The offenses are statutory, meaning the sexual relations were consensual, but the minor victim could not give consent under the law.
Waite had worked on the swim team with the teen, now graduated, since his sophomore year.
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