A Detroit man has been charged in connection with sexually assaulting teen boys while working as a basketball coach for an Oakland County school, officials said.
Jerremy Thompkins, 43, was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced.
He was arraigned Thursday through 36th District Court in Detroit.
Thompkins stood mute and a not guilty plea was entered, court records show.
Bond was set at $250,000.
The penalty for second-degree criminal sexual conduct is up to 15 years in prison. The punishment for fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct is up to two years.
Thompkins, a former basketball coach at Farmington High School in Farmington, allegedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Farmington Hills boy and a 16-year-old Oak Park boy, officials said.
Between August and this month, he allegedly assaulted the boys at his Detroit home in the 8500 block of Asbury Park Drive, prosecutors said.
Detroit police officers arrested Thompkins on Tuesday after an investigation.
A probable cause conference is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 2. Another hearing follows on Nov. 9.
“We want to able to trust the people that we allow to coach, teach, and spend time with our children. Sometimes they are predators that betray and abuse that trust in unimaginable ways,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. “The evidence in this case will show that this defendant’s alleged conduct violated his position of authority and harmed those he was supposed to guide and protect.”
News of the allegations emerged this month.
Farmington Public Schools officials said they terminated the coach and banned him from school property amid the accusations. Though they did not name the coach, school officials said he had not been a district employee.
The district said it also terminated three other coaches in the varsity and freshmen programs who “had some knowledge of these interactions between the JV coach and student-athletes, and chose not to report them.”
X: @CharlesERamirez
