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A former Sumner High School coach was found guilty of sexually abusing his former players.

Jacob Jackson, the former head coach for Sumner High School’s basketball team, was found guilty on 19 of his 20 original charges. The charges include rape, molestation, communication with a minor for immoral purposes, indecent exposure, kidnapping and sexual exploitation. The one charge that was dropped was one count of indecent exposure.

Background on Coach Jackson’s illegal behavior

The allegations stemmed from a civil lawsuit filed in Pierce County in 2022, where the Sumner coach — who was the head of the boys’ basketball team from 2016 to 2022 — was accused of sexual abuse and harassment of a player he previously coached, according to court documents.

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Jackson allegedly gave the victim free basketball equipment, gear, custom apparel, shoes and envelopes full of cash after originally meeting the victim at a Sumner Basketball Academy game. The coach began contacting the student with a company provided cellphone through Sterling Athletics — a sports apparel business owned and operated by Jackson’s father-in-law — via Instagram.

According to court documents, gift-giving from Jackson was a repeated pattern amongst the victims, including giving out shoes ranging from $400 to $1,200 in worth per pair.

According to the lawsuit, the coach then started to ask the victim sexually explicit questions and sent sexually explicit pictures — including photos of his abdominal muscles, his genitalia, and himself urinating — after offering the victim a job to work in a warehouse for Sterling Athletics that would pay more than $100 an hour.

Jackson would coerce the victims into sending pictures of their bodies to check on their growth and progress before asking for photos of their genitalia.

Jackson used the app Snapchat to send inappropriate photos to victims with timers sent so they would disappear from their phones while also using the app’s disappearing chat function to allegedly ask inappropriate questions about the victim’s genitalia and requests for photos. According to court documents, Jackson even asked a player to delete the app and to “lay low” because a parent had made a complaint.

Sumner Police Department Detective Troy Nikolao obtained search warrants for Jackson’s Snapchat and Instagram accounts, as well as Snapchat accounts for several of the individuals who disclosed electronic communications with their coach. No explicit photos were located in response to the warrants, according to court records.

“Because Snapchat’s servers are designed to automatically delete most user content as described in Section III ‘How Snapchat Works’ above, and because much of a user’s content is encrypted, we often cannot retrieve user content except in very limited circumstances,” Snapchat wrote in response to the police warrant. “Memories content may be available until deleted by a user. My Eyes Only content is encrypted, and although we can provide the data file, we have no way to decrypt the data.”

The situation escalated further in the summer of 2020, when Jackson cornered the victim from the civil lawsuit in his home while naked and masturbated in front of him, the lawsuit stated. The victim went to the coach’s house to help with yard chores — something the coach asked multiple victims to do, according to ensuing documents.

Over the next two years, the coach continued to message the victim, asking for pictures of his genitalia.

According to court documents detailing Jackson’s charges, several more inappropriate instances occurred with the team’s players, including two victims who reported Jackson contacted them for more than 300 days in a row. Another victim told detectives after he was interviewed for a second time that Jackson compelled him to engage in mutual oral sex at least 10 times and intercourse once in the same closet.

Jackson has been formally charged with third-degree rape, first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, two counts of third-degree child molestation, indecent exposure and five counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

“The Sumner-Bonney Lake School District is disheartened and disturbed about the allegations that are the subject of an ongoing police investigation of the Sumner High School boys varsity basketball coach, and most recently, the civil lawsuit against the coach for alleged inappropriate behavior toward a student,” the district wrote in a statement acquired by ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ 7. “We are taking this issue very seriously and continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

“We support those who are struggling, and remain concerned for anyone in our community who is experiencing harm related to this situation,” the district’s statement continued. “SBLSD is here to provide safe spaces and shared resources to help all of those affected.”

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More charges against Sumner High School coach

Last November, prosecutors expanded the charges against Jackson to 20 — ranging from communication with a minor for immoral purposes to child molestation and child rape.

The new charges came after detectives said they conducted additional interviews with some of the six victims who claim Jackson groomed and preyed on them between 2018 and 2022. According to court documents, Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Mary Robnett claims Jackson shared nude photos of himself with multiple players over Snapchat and asked them to send him nude pictures in exchange. Several players also claimed in court documents that Jackson asked them about their penis sizes.

According to prosecutors, at least two victims told police Jackson abused them at his home and participated in sex acts with them.

Jackson, who was placed on administrative leave in 2022 by the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District, pleaded not guilty to all 20 counts. His attorneys have also filed a motion asking a judge to allow Jackson to face his accusers separately rather than simultaneously, claiming it’s the only way to ensure a fair trial.

In their motion, Jackson’s attorney said, in part, “… Mr. Jackson will have difficulty in defending on all counts simultaneously because of the multiple complaining witnesses and because testimony from one complaining witness will spill over as evidence to the other complaining witnesses’ claim.”

Several victims’ families have announced their intent to sue the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District. Their suit claims the school district knew about their concerns about Jackson’s contact with players.

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A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Jackson for March 20 at 9 a.m.

Contributing: Luke Duecy, ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, . You can read his stories here and you can email him here.