Shwetha Surendran
Multiple Authors
Kevin Mays, a former Cal State Bakersfield assistant basketball coach accused of pimping and different offenses, will face trial after a California choose dominated Wednesday that there’s ample proof to prosecute him.
Mays faces felony and misdemeanor felony fees that embody pimping and possession of automated firearms, medication and baby pornography. Mays had pleaded not responsible on all fees.
Mays allegedly possessed greater than 600 photographs of youth or baby pornography and distributed obscene matter involving somebody beneath 18 years previous. A police forensic examiner testified Tuesday that 28 movies discovered on Mays’ cellphone, time-stamped between 2022 and 2024, depicted sexual conduct with a minor.
Judge Eric Bradshaw presided over the listening to Tuesday and Wednesday after one other choose was recused from the case for unexplained causes. After listening to hours of testimony from varied police investigators and specialists, Bradshaw said that there’s “sufficient cause to believe that the defendant committed these offenses.”
Police testified concerning the relationship between Mays and a girl who allegedly labored as a prostitute beneath his management. They and Kern County prosecutor Christine Antonios offered particulars about commercials, cellphone and textual content exchanges, automotive leases, and different elements of what investigators alleged was a prostitution operation masking not less than three however probably 4 states.
In addition, the investigators offered express particulars of kid pornography they discovered on Mays’ cellphone plus medication and automated weapons discovered in his automotive and house.
The investigation adopted an Aug. 29 nameless e mail handed on to police by one other staffer at Cal State Bakersfield.
In the August nameless e mail despatched to Rod Barnes, the boys’s basketball coach on the time, the tipster alleged that Mays was working as a pimp throughout 4 states and recognized a girl Mays allegedly had trafficked for a number of months.
According to police data and testimony, they discovered the lady by means of an internet intercourse commercial and ran a sting operation by scheduling a “date” together with her in a Sacramento lodge room they later decided had been rented by Mays.
At the listening to, police recognized the alleged sufferer and testified that she had engaged in prostitution in California, Oregon and Las Vegas. Another witness alleged that the exercise additionally occurred in a fourth state.
Anthony Figueroa, a detective with the Sacramento Police Department, testified that, when interviewed by police, the lady had stated that Mays lined the prices for condoms, rental autos, accommodations and flights when she traveled for intercourse work.
Mays had additionally promised to get her into college, in accordance to police testimony, and should have rented a Cal State Bakersfield basketball participant’s house to the alleged sufferer.
David Torres, Mays’ legal professional, questioned the police characterization of Mays’ and the lady’s relationship as pimp and prostitute and alleged that she had engaged in intercourse work for 5 years earlier than assembly Mays.
Torres requested the choose to dismiss the pimping and pandering fees and stated that this was the “chosen profession” of the alleged sufferer. He pointed to police testimony that she has continued her business intercourse work.
Prosecutor Antonios additionally introduced Mays’ textual content exchanges with one other girl who advised police that she had met Mays whereas relationship a Cal State Bakersfield basketball participant. A police officer testified that, in an interview, the lady stated Mays had reached out to her on social media. She stated that he spoke to her about creating accounts on business intercourse web sites.
Mays’ subsequent listening to date is about for April 7.
Mays’ legal professional and a spokesperson for the Kern County District Attorney’s Office declined remark to ESPN.
