A judge set bail at $500,000 Monday for a volleyball coach accused of sexually assaulting a teen player.
Levi Miller, 26, faces charges of sexual assault against a child under 16, lewdness with a child and child abuse or neglect.
The Metropolitan Police Department has alleged that he inappropriately touched the victim multiple times while massaging her.
Besides the bail amount, which was requested by prosecutors, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Kristal Bradford ordered that Miller be subject to high-level electronic monitoring, have no contact with children and not use Snapchat.
The judge said she was concerned about community safety.
“These (claims) remain allegations at this point,” said defense attorney Dowon Kang. “Mr. Miller is innocent as he stands here.”
Deputy District Attorney Kate Groesbeck noted that if convicted, Miller faces a 25-year to life sentence on the sexual assault count.
Miller worked as facilities and operations manager for Vegas United Volleyball Club before his arrest but has since been terminated.
The victim is a high school sophomore, said the prosecutor, and started to see Miller, a trainer and physical therapist, after hurting her hip and knee. Miller worked to gain her family’s trust in order “to exploit this young girl,” Groesbeck said.
He was “continuously touching this 15-year-old girl in a worse and worse chain of events,” the prosecutor alleged.
Miller would massage the victim, and eventually, touched her under her spandex and sexually assaulted her, according to the prosecutor. He also put his hand around the victim’s neck and choked her, Groesbeck said, then texted to ask if he had gone too far.
The prosecutor said Miller shifted communication with the girl to Snapchat, with the account set up to delete messages. She indicated that he created a new account so the girl’s mother would not be able to recognize him if she saw it.
He sent videos that showed him touching himself, Groesbeck alleged, and started to “very explicitly lay out what he wants to do her in the upcoming sessions.”
“He tells the victim at one point that her 16th birthday is soon and soon, she’ll be a legal age,” said the prosecutor. “So he cannot claim that he didn’t know. He knew this girl was 15 years old and he continued to have a sexual relationship with her.”
Kang said it was natural that Miller would have a relationship with the girl’s family because of their mutual involvement in volleyball.
Police said in a news release that they are seeking additional juvenile victims.
“Nobody’s come forward,” said Kang. “They don’t have anything to support that.”
Of the allegations about Snap and text messages, he said, “We don’t have any. They weren’t memorialized.”
According to a police report, 227 pages of text messages were preserved and a warrant is pending for Miller’s Snapchat account.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
