SPRINGFIELD — A city man pleaded not guilty to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl who had been on a team he coached when he was arraigned Wednesday in Hampden Superior Court on four counts of rape and abuse of a child aggravated by age.
Michael Rash, 24, of 9 Miller St., who had been a volleyball coach at Agawam High School when his relationship with the victim began, was allowed to remain at liberty on $1,000 cash bail, the same bail had been imposed by Judge Jaclyn M. Connly when he was initially arraigned in Westfield District Court June 6. He will also be subject to electronic monitoring.
Rash was arrested by Agawam police after the girl’s mother began to suspect her daughter was engaged in a sexual relationship after she had learned that her daughter had been sneaking out of the house late at night to meet her volleyball coach.
The woman told police that she had learned between March and May that her daughter was developing a relationship with her coach but initially assumed that their relationship was related to the team.
The woman said that she first became aware that her daughter was exchanging digital messages with her coach but said that eventually her daughter admitted that she had snuck out of the house between midnight and two a.m. on at least three occasions to meet her coach, who she identified to her mother as Mike Rash of Westfield, and the couple then walked to Perry Lane Park where they engaged in consensual non-penetrative sexual activities.
The woman’s complaint was investigated by Agawam Officer Michael Gruska who, with the assistance of a state trooper assigned to the D.A.’s office and the cooperation of the victim’s mother who had the passwords for the daughter’s electronic devices, assembled evidence in the form of text messages and pictures recovered from the girl’s cell phone and computer including “a number of sexual conversations taking place between the suspect and the victim.”
Gruska’s investigation led to Rash’s arraignment In Westfield District Court, the same court where Rash was arraigned in 2006, when he was 17-years-old and had been a member of group of youths who, masked and armed with a pellet gun, had allegedly set up and robbed a pizza delivery person on Otis Street.
He was subsequently indicted and arraigned in Hampden Superior court where the charge, armed robbery while masked, ultimately was not prosecuted.
