A former Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer Association coach had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl on his traveling club team until the girl's mother discovered amorous text messages on the girl's cell phone, a sheriff's investigator testified this morning.
The illegal trysts between the girl and Gregory Tatton, 43, coach of the Arsenal soccer team, began when Tatton took the girl back to his Glen Ellen home after soccer practice in May or June of 2007 before the girl's 16th birthday in July, Sonoma County Sheriff's Detective Jake Vivian testified at Tatton's preliminary hearing Thursday morning in Sonoma County Superior Court.
The hearing will allow a judge to determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
Vivian said the girl, identified as Jane Doe, told him Tatton kissed and undressed her on a bed and had sex with her despite her repeated objections. Tatton told the girl he loved her and that it would be OK, and warned her not to tell anyone or they would get in trouble, Vivian said.
In the months that followed, the relationship allegedly continued. The two had sex two to three times a week during the May to November 2007 soccer season, Vivian testified. They then had sex once a week after the soccer season until the girl's mother discovered text messages from Tatton in December 2007 on one of two cell phones Tatton gave the girl to keep in touch with him, Vivian said.
Vivian said the girl told him that the sexual encounters occurred at Tatton's home, in the back of his truck, in a vineyard and near a golf course in the Sonoma area.
Tatton is charged with 18 counts of sex with a minor more than three years younger than him, six counts of oral copulation with a person under age 18 and seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years old and more than 10 years younger him.
The girl's mother became suspicious of the relationship when Tatton sent the girl a 16th birthday card covered with lipstick kisses, Vivian testified.
Tatton was arrested April 3 in West Hollywood and is out of custody.
