PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – The head boys' soccer coach at a Pembroke Pines charter school was arrested Friday after police said he sent inappropriate text messages and nude images of himself to a girl at the school.
Owen Cleveland Gayle, 38, of Davie, faces several charges, including use of a computer to seduce or solicit a child and transmitting information harmful to minors.
Sgt. Adam Feiner, a spokesman for the Pembroke Pines Police Department, said Gayle used the messaging application WhatsApp to communicate with his soccer team at Somerset Academy, a K-12 school in the 20800 block of Johnson Street.
Gayle used the app to communicate with the girl and send her pornographic images of himself, Feiner said. Gayle also asked the girl, who volunteered with the team, to send nude images of herself, police said.
The girl, whose age was not disclosed, told another soccer coach about the messages and that coach alerted authorities, Feiner said.
Feiner said Gayle confessed to sending the messages after his arrest.
Police said Gayle also taught private lessons at Soccer Elite Training, First Touch Academy and the City of Weston AYSO Select Program.
Gayle appeared in court Saturday, where a judge set his bond at $125,000. Before he is released, the Broward County Sheriff's Office will search his home and remove all communications devices that have access to the internet.
Gayle is prohibited from having contact with the victim and other children. He will require the highest level of monitoring if he is released, the judge said.
Gayle is currently being held at Broward County's Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Pembroke Pines Police Department at 954-431-2200 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
Gayle's arrest is the latest incident involving police at Somerset Academy.
Two students at Somerset Academy have been recently been accused of threatening classmates. Jeremy Ossa, 19, was arrested in October after police said he threatened to shoot his "enemies." Another student was hospitalized this month after he threatened to kill a female student and himself.
The incidents were among a number of threats made by students at Pembroke Pines area schools in recent months, police said.