A climbing coach at Earth Treks in Columbia has pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, and another instructor at the facility is expected to enter a plea next week in a similar case.
Michael J. Lyons, a 31-year-old from Rockville who was the head coach of Earth Treks' competitive climbing team, pleaded guilty Wednesday, Nov. 30, in Howard County Circuit Court to one count of sexual abuse of a minor. The charge comes because he had temporary care, responsibility or supervision over the girl due to his role as her coach.
Prosecutors recommended Lyons be sentenced to 15 years in prison with all but eight years of that sentence suspended. Upon his release, he would be on probation for five years, could not have any contact with the victim, would have to register as a sex offender and would not be allowed to have any unsupervised contact with minors.
His sentencing, before Judge Louis A. Becker III, is scheduled for Feb. 3.
Meanwhile, Daniel Lloyd Montague, a 20-year-old from Fulton who was also a climbing coach at Earth Treks, has entered a plea agreement and is expected to appear in court on Dec. 6.
Lyons and Montague had gone through criminal background checks before being hired at the Earth Treks climbing gyms, according to owner Chris Warner. But within a two-week period this summer, each was arrested for allegedly having sexual contact with a girl on the company's competitive climbing team.
The victim in both cases is the same girl, who has since turned 15, according to court documents. The Columbia Flier does not identify victims of sex crimes.
Lyons was arrested in June at the company's Timonium location. He had also been charged with three counts of third-degree sex offenses and one count of sexual solicitation of a minor. He is being held at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup.
Lyons was accused of having sexual contact between April and June 2011 with the girl, including having sexual intercourse with her in a closet at the Columbia gym during a team sleepover. Prosecutors said Wednesday he also had intercourse with the girl on a team trip to Massachusetts. Lyons admitted to having sex with her when police had the girl call him and say she was pregnant, even though she was not, according to prosecutors.
Lyons, who was also a coach for the U.S. national climbing team, had trained other coaches on proper relationships between coaches and athletes, Warner said.
Montague was arrested in July. He is facing four counts of committing an unnatural or perverted practice and four counts of fourth-degree sex offenses. He is out on bail.
He is accused of having sexual contact on four occasions between March and June 2011 with the girl. Police said that all of those encounters happened at the girl's house and not at any of the company's three locations.
Following their arrests, Lyons and Montague were fired from Earth Treks.
Sexual predators in cases like these are "master manipulators," said Cheryl Ladota, assistant executive director of Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland, which provides treatment for victims of child abuse.
"And they don't just manipulate the children," she said. "They manipulate the whole family and groups of children."
The arrests stunned the Earth Treks community and also led to more awareness about sexual abuse in the region, according to Warner and Ladota.
Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland received more calls from past sexual abuse victims — not from Earth Treks, but from other cases — disclosing their abuse for the first time. Parents with no affiliation to the climbing gyms called with concerns that their children might have been abused. And some parents whose children went to Earth Treks called and asked what to look for in their children in case they were involved.
"Any time that a story like this goes public where there's a potential for a lot of victims, it raises the awareness and the consciousness of people," Ladota said. "In some ways, it may give some confidence to a victim to be willing to speak up, because there'd been a lot of shame and fear that they won't be believed or that they did something wrong."
Warner said Earth Treks held meetings for parents and brought in the police department and social-service agencies.
"If somebody's in pain, you do everything you possibly could to comfort them in the moment," he said.
The company did not see a decline in membership, he said, pointing to the fact that climbing team tryouts brought in about 220 kids to fill 140 spots across its three gyms. The company now does background checks for all staff members, not just coaches, he said.
"People were very good at being able to identify this as a problem caused by individuals," Warner said. "The response we got back from members was great. Our community was still there for us."
Jeannine Wolfe, of Ellicott City, has two children who climb at Earth Treks in Columbia, including one daughter on the competitive climbing team. She said team families have supported each other following the arrests.
"It's the people who make decisions to behave in such a manner that have to be held accountable for their actions. I don't believe Earth Treks had any knowledge, or they would've done something to prevent anything from happening," Wolfe said.
"It's a great program, and I think a lot of kids benefit from it," she said. "I wouldn't dream of taking my daughter out unless she's tired of climbing."