Ex-Coach Must Register As Sex Offender for 'Sexting' with Student

By Heather Rawlyk
Maryland Gazette
April 4, 2012

www.mdgazette.com/content/ex-coach-must-register-sex-offender-sexting-student

During an emotional hearing that left many in an Annapolis courtroom in tears on Tuesday, a former Archbishop Spalding High School girls track coach was ordered to register as a sex offender for 25 years for sexting with one of his athletes during a months-long relationship.

Brian T. Funk, 40, a married father of two young children, entered an Alford plea to soliciting child pornography.

The plea allowed him to maintain his innocence while admitting prosecutors have enough evidence to convict. It carries the same consequences as a guilty plea.

Assistant State's Attorney Pamela Alban said the state worked hard to nail down that charge, as it carries a mandatory 25 years on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry. This ensures that Funk cannot coach children for more than two decades.

Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner stayed within the guidelines — probation to three years in prison — sentencing Funk to three years and suspending it entirely. He also ordered five years of supervised probation.

Funk coached the girls varsity track team for two years at the school in Severn. As a volunteer coach, Funk, of Willowby Run in Pasadena, was considered an "independent contractor" who received a stipend of $1,800 a season, according to court documents.

He's a former college coach and standout runner at Millersville and Towson universities. He also has been a regular sports contributor to the local news website, Patch, and was briefly a freelance writer for the Maryland Gazette in 2004.

Prosecutors said Funk and the 17-year-old student exchanged nude cell phone photos and videos.

The relationship between Funk and teen came to light after the girl's father caught the two kissing outside a Linthicum movie theater last summer.

On July 16, the girl told her parents she was going to pick up a friend and see a Harry Potter movie. Ten minutes after she left, she called her father to let him know that she made it to the theater safely. Her father became suspicious because it would take longer than 10 minutes to pick up a friend and get to the theater, Alban said.

The girl's parents got on the computer and figured out that their daughter was at the theater by using the GPS tracking devise they had installed on her car. Her father drove to the theater and found the parked car, but could not find his daughter. He waited outside the theater. At about 11 p.m., as the attendees of the Harry Potter movie were let out, he saw the girl and Funk walking with their arms linked, and then kissing outside his vehicle.

Her father pulled up his car and ordered his daughter to get in her car and follow him home.

Denied kissing teen

The next day, Funk touched base with the school's athletic director, saying the girl was "getting too close" to him and that he agreed to see a movie with her to convince her to seek counseling, Alban said.

He denied kissing the teen.

The girl's father sent a complaint to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which oversees the Roman Catholic school. Church officials filed a complaint with the county Department of Social Services. According to court records, Funk admitted to archdiocesan officials that he was involved in an inappropriate relationship with the track member. He was fired as a result.

The complaint triggered a two-month investigation by police, who were tipped off by the archdiocese. Funk turned himself in to police in September after a warrant was issued.

When questioned by police, the teen said that starting in March 2011 she would talk with Funk about everything. She said they would meet after track practice for coffee, movies, tennis and other activities. The teen denied having sex with Funk, but said they had kissed several times, including while traveling for track meets out of state.

Funk eventually asked the teen to send naked photos. That progressed to both exchanging sexually explicit videos of each other, prosecutors said.

The teen told police she had not seen Funk since the night her father caught them outside the theater.

Abandoned by friends

The articulate high school senior told the court Tuesday that Funk is not a bad person.

"He was someone I trusted, I admired and found friendship in..." she said. "I cannot sit here and berate him because I don't think he deserves that. But he does need to know how much pain I've experienced because of his mistakes."

The teen said she was abandoned by her best friends after they learned of the relationship with Funk.

"Losing them was the hardest part of all," she said. "I never thought I'd be going through this without them."

She said she's been tormented by other students at school. She chose not to attend any senior events. She wishes she didn't have to attend her graduation.

"High schoolers can be cruel..." she said. "I just want my senior year back... This year has been exhausting, challenging and just plain miserable.. I don't know if someone can fully heal from something like this."

'Year of heartache'

Her father wept as he described the changes in his daughter.

"Our once very popular and confident teenager has spent her whole senior year being treated as an outcast," he said. "Her best friends, ones she's known since the age of five, totally turned their backs on her and were out of her life in an instant. What should have been our daughter's best year, her senior year in high school, became a year of unrelenting pain and heartache."

He was glad Funk has to register as a sex offender.

"You have willingly betrayed those who placed trust in you and deserve no less than having a constant reminder as we do of the pain you have selfishly inflicted on all involved," he said. "Justice can only be served by labeling you what you are: a predator."

Wearing a tan suit, Funk stood, took a deep breath, and apologized.

In a shaking voice, he told the court he's lost everything: That he and his wife are continuing to repair the damage. That he's doing all he can to support his family financially by working at a catering business.

"I cannot change what has happened but I am trying every day to be a better person through this painful experience," he said. "My actions were inappropriate. I am a good person, a loving father of two small children, a hard and driven worker and an educated man who stands before you broken and at your mercy."

Hackner said registering as a sex offender and losing everything was far worse punishment than time behind bars.