Criminal investigation refutes Carson City Pop Warner's 'one-time mistake' claims regarding sex offender

Following a social media post that revealed the sex offender status of a Carson City Pop Warner coach’s husband, Board President Austin Matthews insisted that the sexual activity between then 29-year-old Gabe Miles and a 14-year-old child were consensual and a “one time mistake.”

The 2014 criminal investigation report obtained by Carson Now from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office refutes that assertion.

In addition, several parents and former coaches came forward to discuss the long-standing issues with the board and board president Austin Matthews.

For the first part of this multi-part series, please click here.

Initial arrest and investigation of Gabe Miles

Carson Now has chosen to limit details from the arrest report for the sake of victim privacy. While Matthews told Carson Now that it was “one weekend of his life,” the investigation shows that Miles engaged in inappropriate contact with the child several months prior to his arrest, including sexual activity that occurred a number of times on different dates.

While we have limited specific details, readers should be warned some may find the details disturbing.

Douglas County deputies initially responded to Miles’s house on report of an attempted burglary. Upon arrival, they learned that family members of the child had gone to Miles’s house to confront him after they learned of the sexual activity that had taken place with the child and were attempting to break in.

Deputies interviewed the child, her mother, family members, and Miles over the course of the investigation multiple times.

According to the investigation report, Miles had been family friends with the child’s family for several years, and the families moved in together in Aug. 2013. The 14-year-old began babysitting for Miles’s two young children. Miles initially told detectives that he “thought of (the child) as a daughter” and that nothing inappropriate had ever occurred. He said that he knew the child had a “crush” on him, as the mother had asked him about behaviors exhibited by her daughter a number of times.

A family member of the child who had been living in the residence until September stated she witnessed one occasion in which Miles and the child had been “wrestling and tickling” each other, and Miles pinned the child to the ground and touched her inner thigh. They got up and sat on the couch together with their “legs intertwined and his arm around her waist.”

In September, the family member said they were informed that Miles and the child were “messing around” and “tried to get either one of them to confess,” but they both stated nothing had occurred.

In mid-November, the mother came home from a trip and one of Miles’s young children told her that Miles and the 14-year-old had been kissing and had been in the shower together.

The mother then went through the child’s phone. She read messages stating that Miles was calling the child “baby” and sending what investigators interpreted as suggestive messages. The child admitted to family members that she and Miles had “only kissed.”

During interviews with detectives, both the child and Miles admitted to having sexual relations on a number of occassions. Over the course of approximately two months, Miles attempted to or did have sex with the child at least three times.

The child told investigators that she still had feelings for Miles and believed they were in a relationship. She told them that he instructed her during sex on how to alleviate pain, and how to take care of her body afterwards.

During this period of time, Miles would occasionally ask the child if “our secret is still a secret?” and told her that when she was older “she could be the one to give him the son he has always wanted.”

On the day Miles’s crimes were discovered, he was trying to convince the mother to allow him to take the child with him to Idaho for Thanksgiving.

When investigators asked how many times Miles had sexual relations with the child, he said “I can’t remember to be honest. I know it was more than twice.”

Miles also told investigators that “he didn’t mean for any of this to happen. It’s not me,” and then said, “it seems unfair because it wasn’t just me. I wasn’t the only one that provoked anything. She was provoking just as much as me, and she’s not going to get punished.”

Investigators noted they believed Miles was attempting to shift blame onto the child.

Continued issues with Pop Warner

During Carson Now’s investigations, several parents, former coaches and board members agreed to speak about ongoing issues with the organization.

Ex-coach and cheer parent Katie Park said that there have been issues with Pop Warner for years, but she was still shocked the organization would allow an offender to knowingly be around their children.

Park said that she was let go from her coaching position a few years ago after she drank beer at a Pop Warner game.

“They told me they have a zero tolerance policy, which I accepted,” Park said. “I take responsibility for it — but I would have hoped that, if they had a zero tolerance policy for drinking beer, they would have had zero tolerance for (Miles) to be around our kids.”

Park said that her daughter continued to cheer for Pop Warner, but she decided not to continue after an incident last season dissolved her trust.

Park said that there was a binder containing photos, home addresses, and personal information of the cheer team members which was stolen along with $300.

“They refused to file a police report until parents made such a stink about the personal information being out there that they finally did,” Park said.

However, Park said, when parents were given a phone number to call to file their incident report, the number did not connect them with an investigator at the Sheriffs’ Office as they had expected — but with Matthews himself.

“He pretended to be someone with authority who could take this incident report,” Park said. “But then he finally outed himself as Austin — it was bizarre.”

Park said that in the actual incident report filed to the Sheriff’s Office, only the theft of the money was reported, not the information of the girls, which is what parents were concerned about.

Park said in January she received an email from Pop Warner stating the bag with the money and book had been “turned in anonymously.”

“They emailed to say that, magically, the binder and the money were both found,” Park said.

The email stated that all “sensitive information” within the book would be destroyed.

However, Matthews denies most of these claims. He said that he never posed as a Sheriff’s deputy, but that he had the authority to take the incident reports on behalf of the league. He said that, once the report was filed with the Sheriff’s Office, he gave parents the case number so they could speak directly with deputies.

He said he couldn’t remember exactly how long after the bag went missing that the report was filed, but it was because they had to take their time to get all their details together so they would “be taken seriously” by the sheriff’s office.

“(Filing the report) wasn’t as fast as some of the parents on the teams wanted it,” Matthews said. “And they complained.”

Matthews said that, in contradiction to the email sent to parents, the bag was not turned in anonymously, but that another coach had it by mistake the whole time. Matthews did not know exactly how long the bag was missing, but the Pee Wee season was abruptly ended by Matthews in October, and the bag was reportedly found in late January. Matthews did not indicate which coach had the bag, or why it took so long for it to be discovered.

“Weird things are happening all the time in Pop Warner,” Park said. “Really what I think it is, is it’s a tight knit group of friends covering for each other.”

When cheer and football parent Alicia Farrow spoke with Matthews, she said she was told Miles had had a consensual relationship with the child, that he “wasn’t in the right mindset” but he is no longer a predator.

“I don’t care if he ‘wasn’t in the right mindset’,” Farrow said. “There is always something deep down that knows it’s wrong. In my opinion: once a predator always a predator. What I really wanted to know from Austin was: are my children safe? I understand (Miles) is not on the board; we’re surrounded by predators all the time without knowing. But the fact is, in this case, this predator is known. It is very easy to not have someone on your board who is affiliated with a convicted sex offender.”

Farrow said she and her husband are now considering pulling their daughter out of Pop Warner, but that she feels torn.

“I love my daughter’s coaches, I trust them,” Farrow said. “I spoke with them, and they were shocked by the news. While the board knew about (Miles’s sex offender status), I don’t think the coaches did.”

Several parents have called for the coach's resignation or dismissal due to the husband’s offender status, but at the time of publication, neither has occurred. While some parents, like Hall and Farrow, said they would consider returning if the coach is removed, others said their trust has been broken and they will not be returning. Parents also said the board should reevaluate Matthews serving as president.

Fall Out

After the article was published, CCPW took down their website and the league has been placed on a 30 day “pause” by regional leadership while an investigation is pursued.

The website has since been restored with the statement and a link to contact Sagebrush Pop Warner.

CCPW in a statement released on Facebook said that the investigation was to “verify that all proper safety procedures, policies and guidelines are in place and being followed.”

Many individuals who spoke to Carson Now said they had been threatened with lawsuits by Matthews if they spoke out, and that they felt intimidated by him.

“I have no idea why he is defending this man,” one individual, who requested not to be named, said. “It makes no sense.”

We will continue to update as information becomes available. At the time of publication, Regional Pop Warner has not responded to Carson Now for comment.