JUNE 6, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Court documents related to this case are available to download as pdf files from the district’s Web site at

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/morriss_indictment.pdf
www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/morriss_search_warrant.pdf
www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/morriss_affidavit.pdf

 

TEXAS YOUTH COACH INDICTED FOR SEXUALLY MOLESTING A MINOR

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a girls youth wrestling coach was indicted by a federal grand jury today for sexually molesting a minor aboard a charter bus traveling through Missouri on its return trip to Texas.

Timothy Daniel Morriss, 42, of Weir, Texas, was charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City. Morriss, a girls youth wrestling coach at The Rock Wrestling Club in Leaander, Texas, was among several adults traveling with a group of female high school-age wrestlers from the Team Texas delegation of the USA Wrestling League aboard a charter bus to a national meet in Fargo, N. D.

Count One of the federal indictment alleges that Morriss unlawfully confined persons who were minors while they were transported across state lines on July 30, 2005.

Count Two of the federal indictment alleges that Morriss used a facility of interstate commerce to coerce a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity, for which he could be charged with statutory sodomy and child molestation under Missouri statutes, between July 26 and July 30, 2005.

Count Three of the federal indictment alleges that Morriss traveled across state lines for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual activity between July 26 and July 30, 2005.

Schlozman cautioned that the charges contained in the indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia L. Phillips. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Frisco, Texas, Police Department.