A high school volleyball coach has been arraigned on charges of having sexual misconduct with a teen boy.
State Police arrested 39-year-old Andrew Murtha of Depew on a felony charge of criminal sexual act in the third degree and felony disseminating indecent material to a minor in the first degree. The charges result from an investigation which police say revealed Murtha exchanged messages and pictures with the 16-year-old boy on a social media app and met with him for sexual contact.
Police say the case began when troopers from the Canandaigua barracks were dispatched to the town of Phelps, NY, after parents discovered the boy snuck out to meet Murtha. Investigators learned the coach was in the Rochester area that weekend for a travel volleyball tournament. Murtha coaches volleyball for Maryvale High School and a Lockport travel team.
He was arraigned in the Town of Phelps Court and remanded to Ontario County Jail in lieu of $2,000 bail. Police are looking into whether other minors have had similar contact with Murtha.
