ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A former Cherry Creek High School girls softball coach appeared in court Thursday after being arrested on charges of criminal exploitation.
Paul (Pablo) Severtson, 37, was issued a $100,00 bond and ordered not to go near Cherry Creek High School. He will be monitored by a GPS tracker and his online activity will also be supervised.
The mother of a 15-year-old in Virginia said via video link in court that she wants Severtson to be held accountable for his actions.
Severtson is also a coach for the Colorado Styxx girls’ softball club and has coached at Heritage High School, Littleton High School, and Chaparral High School from November 2017 through August 2020.
The Cherry Creek School District said in a statement Wednesday that Severtson’s employment with the district has been terminated immediately.
How authorities discovered the online connection to Severtson
Severtson was found after authorities began an investigation into the suicide of an underage girl in Virginia. Authorities said they found she was talking to the high school coach on a social media messaging app.
Investigators said he had three accounts on the social media chat app KIK in which he passed himself off as 22 to 23 years old and sometimes into fitness. Severtson attempted to “persuade his victim to produce and send nude images and videos of herself, which due to her age, would be considered child sexual abuse material,” sources at the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said.
Several items of evidence were seized from Severton’s house when a search warrant was executed.
The Hanover County Sherriff’s Office in Virginia told FOX31 that Severtson solicited nude photos from the juvenile in question on Sept. 25, 2021.
The girl’s death is not linked to this incident, the Sherriff’s Office said and investigators came across the information during the course of the death investigation.
“Based on the downloads and where the “user” information came back to, our investigators shared this information with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office who began investigating Paul Severtson based on our tip,” the Hanover County Sherriff’s Office said.
The district attorney’s office said the official filing of charges against Severtson will be on the morning of July 26.