Coach's trial on sex charge continues todayA college soccer coach who'd been chatting online for hours about meeting a 13-year-old girl for a sexual tryst admitted he'd made "a big mistake" when his rendezvous turned out to be with Louisa County Louisa County is the name of two counties in the United States of America:
The question explored during the first day of Joseph Okoh's jury trial was what kind of mistake. Prosecutors contended that the mistake was an attempt by the 41-year-old Arlington resident to get together with someone he thought was a Louisa County teenager, a series of events that led to his arrest. Okoh's defense lawyers said a persona he used during online role-playing resulted in a mistaken felony solicitation solicitation In criminal law, the act of asking, inducing, or directing someone to commit a crime. The person soliciting another becomes an accomplice to the crime. The term also refers to the act of obtaining bribes, as well as to the crime of a prostitute who offers sexual charge. If convicted of using the Internet to solicit sex with a minor, Okoh could face up to 30 years in prison. Okoh was suspended as coach of Howard University's men's soccer team after he was charged. Dressed in a dark business suit, he sat stoically sto·ic n. 1. One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain. 2. Stoic A member of an originally Greek school of philosophy, founded by Zeno about 308 during yesterday's proceedings, often taking notes as Louisa Detective Patrick Siewert recited in graphic sexual detail Okoh's archived chat records on Jan. 25 with Siewert, who was communicating under the persona of the teenaged girl. Siewert testified for more than three hours yesterday inside Louisa County Circuit Court, the only testimony on the first day of Okoh's trial. Siewert testified that after Okoh contacted Siewert's undercover persona about 4:45 p.m., the conversation went from cordial cordial: see liqueur. to sexually inquisitive in·quis·i·tive adj. 1. Inclined to investigate; eager for knowledge. 2. Unduly curious and inquiring. See Synonyms at curious. until Okoh agreed to drive that night from his Arlington home to meet the "girl" in Louisa for an encounter. Per their online conversation, Okoh showed up at a convenience store just across the Spotsylvania County line with the alcohol he agreed to bring and driving the type of car he told his new friend he'd be driving, Siewert told jurors. Investigators seized the laptop with the cellular wireless Internet card Okoh referred to during the instant message chat that went on during the trip, the detective stated. Distraught dis·traught adj. 1. Deeply agitated, as from emotional conflict. 2. Mad; insane. [Middle English, alteration of distract, past participle of distracten, when he was nabbed, Okoh admitted to Siewert that he'd made a mistake, confessed that he was the one behind the Yahoo chat screen name and admitted to the sexual statements made under Okoh's online identity, Siewert testified. Siewert is part of the Bedford County-based Internet Crimes Internet crime is crime committed on the Internet, using the Internet and by means of the Internet. Computer crime is a general term that embraces such crimes as phishing, credit card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child pornography, Against Children Task Force. Okoh's defense lawyers hammered away at what they called the false pretense false pretense n. Law False representation of fact or circumstance, calculated to mislead. Noun 1. false pretense under which Siewert lured their client into the meeting. In opening statements and during cross-examination, they gleaned that Yahoo chat users must be 18 to open an account and that it's not unusual for people in chat forums to misstate mis·state tr.v. mis·stat·ed, mis·stat·ing, mis·states To state wrongly or falsely. mis·state  ment n. their ages and other personal information. They also suggested that Okoh might have been involved in role-playing with someone he assumed was another adult.
"Coach Okoh was in an adult romance" chat room, defense attorney Sherman Lambert said during opening statements. "Nothing that he did was outside the scope of the [chat] regulations." Okoh is expected to testify today after the trial resumes. Contact staff writer Calvin R. Trice at (540) 932-3674 or ctrice@timesdispatch.com. 
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