KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former girls volleyball coach was sentenced to 32 months in prison for asking a teenage player to send him obscene pictures of herself.
Levinson Gibson, 27, pleaded guilty earlier this year in Leavenworth County District Court to one count of sexual exploitation of a child, according to a news release from the Leavenworth County Attorney's Office.
Gibson coached for the Dynasty Volleyball Academy in Kansas City, Kansas.
He used a social media account to ask the 15-year-old victim for the pictures, according to the news release.
Gibson admitted to investigators from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation he asked for and received pictures from the victim.
Family and friends of Gibson asked the judge to grant probation and continued treatment.
The victim's family, friends and other supporters urged the judge to sentence Gibson to prison.
“The defendant had a position of authority and abused that. He caused this young woman extreme trauma and hurt so many others," Leavenworth County District Attorney Todd Thompson stated in the news release. "Yet, just as her mother said, she is a hero. A hero for coming forward and standing strong through all this. We thank her. We hope she can be an example to others to come forward if this happens to them.”
Gibson will have to register as a lifetime sexual offender.
He was arrested in September, and resigned from Dynasty Volleyball shortly after the allegations surfaced.
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