BROOMFIELD — Lurid text messages and photos exchanged between Travis Masse and his former student prove he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 years old, prosecutors said Thursday.
The text messages and photos were sent in March 2010, a year after the former Broomfield High School teacher and wrestling coach allegedly engaged in sex acts with the girl.
The messages include references to those encounters, prosecutor Yvette Werner told jurors Thursday in Masse’s sexual assault trial.
“When she asks him to ‘Send the friend I used to play with,’ he knows exactly what to send her,” Werner said, referring to a picture of Masse’s genitals.
Defense attorney Pamela Mackey tore into the alleged victim’s testimony for being vague on details, particularly her recollections about a wrestling team trip to California.
The young woman was a manager of the wrestling team at the time and claimed Masse had a room on the eighth floor of a hotel where they had sexual intercourse.
“Don’t you think when you have sexual intercourse with your teacher and coach that you’d remember if it was the first night, the last night, or the middle night?” Mackey asked. “She doesn’t know the details; she’s making it up.”
She pointed out that phone records showed the two texted each other at the same time they were supposedly having sex in the hotel room. There also are no witnesses or physical evidence confirming sexual contact, Mackey said.
“That’s because it never happened,” she said.
The case against Masse, 29, wrapped up with closing arguments from both sides Thursday afternoon. It was given to jurors in the late afternoon. The panel is scheduled to continue deliberations this morning.
Prosecutors allege Masse groomed the alleged victim for sex by sending her thousands of text messages. In one three-month period, the two exchanged almost 9,000 messages, and many of them were sex-fueled.
“That was 10 times the amount of messages he sent his wife,” said prosecutor Lisa Hunt.
Werner read aloud the text messages Masse and the alleged victim exchanged last spring. When Masse texted her about having sex with her, the young woman responded: “Good, that’s the way I like it.”
Masse then responded: “I know.”
The two also talked about pink panties he allegedly gave her on Valentine’s Day 2009.
Werner also argued the woman testified in open court about “matters so intimate and disgusting” because the sexual encounters really happened.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
