TROY, Ohio -- A Troy Christian High School student testified she didn't reveal a sexual relationship with former school basketball coach James H. Clay for several months in 2007 because she didn't want his children to be hurt.

Clay, 41, is on trial in Miami County Common Pleas Court on a felony charge of sexual battery for an alleged sexual relationship with the then 15-year-old girl between fall 2006 and early 2007.

The girl, now 17, cried a few times and fidgeted in the witness chair on Wednesday, Aug. 27, as she detailed nine sexual encounters she said she had with Clay at her home, a motel and at his home where she went for weekly Bible studies.

The girl's mother testified later Wednesday that she begged Clay to mentor her daughter in 2006 after she and her husband divorced.

The girl said she at times would stay overnight at the Clay home after the Bible studies, when his wife was not home, and he'd take her to school the next morning.

The mother testified that she and her daughter started spending time with Clay and his family in the summer and fall in 2006. She said that she, too, had a sexual relationship with Clay for a few weeks in late 2006-early 2007.

Defense lawyers argue the girl and Clay were very close, but there was no sexual relationship. They contend the girl made the false claims out of revenge after learning about her mother and Clay's affair.

The girl testified Clay asked her to keep their relationship a secret, saying he could get in trouble and be taken away from his children.

"He said people won't understand our relationship. That's why we have to keep it secret," she said.

She reported the relationship to a youth pastor at a church program in Florida in June 2007. The pastor contacted Miami County authorities.

The pastor, Daron Kiser of Troy, testified he's known the girl for three years and she has a reputation of "truthfulness." As she told him about the relationship with the coach, the girl was calm and mature, he said.

Kiser had the girl write out a statement of what occurred. In that statement, she wrote Clay "used the Bible to manipulate me."

(Article courtesy of www.daytondailynews.com)