COQUILLE — The lawyer for Coquille High School’s track coach says she is guilty only of showing kindness to an athlete.

Following a court hearing this morning, David Terry of Roseburg criticized the Coquille Police Department, suggesting it rushed its investigation into allegations that Wendi Boutiette had sex with a minor.



“Nothing whatsoever of a physical nature ever occurred,” he said. He predicted the case would end in dismissal or acquittal.

Prosecutor R. Paul Frasier said the charges against Boutiette stem from a one-time incident at some point in 2006. Police arrested Boutiette on Saturday, on charges of second-degree sexual abuse, contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor and sexual misconduct.

Police have since interviewed at least five teenagers, two of whom claim they had relationships with Boutiette, said police Chief Mark Dannels. Terry, however, said Boutiette had “consensual, intimate, lawful contact” with a former student — an adult she had coached five years earlier. The other alleged victim was an adult co-worker, Terry said.

In court today, Coos County Judge Martin Stone set a preliminary hearing for 8:30 a.m. on March 17. He agreed to release Boutiette from custody as long as she avoids her alleged victim and Coquille School District property.

Terry requested she be allowed to attend school events involving her own children if held outside of Coquille, which Stone allowed as long as she is accompanied by an adult.

Boutiette has coached at Coquille for several years. She first was hired by the district as an assistant coach in the 2002-03 school year. Superintendent Diann Gillaspie said Boutiette became head coach in the 2007-08 school year.

Her contract for the current year wouldn’t go into effect until the season begins, which won’t happen until next week. Rather than recognize the contract, Gillaspie said the district has essentially suspended Boutiette until the legal issue is resolved.

“We will wait until the courts handle this,” she said.

While the majority of sex offenders are men, they do not account for all of them. In an interview this week, Michelle Nicolaus, a forensic interviewer for Children’s Advocacy Program in Coos Bay, said it’s usually only in high-profile cases that women get exposure as sex offenders. Part of the reason women are less likely to face prosecution is because a boy is less likely to report being a victim.

“It’s perceived as cool to have sex,”  Nicolaus said.

When such cases arise, it usually takes a boy confiding in a friend or realizing after the fact that having sex was wrong. That’s when people find out about it.

In the case involving Boutiette, the former student confided in a mentor who passed word  to the school district, Frasier said. The incident allegedly occurred in 2006, when the boy wasn’t yet 18 years old, according to a press release from Frasier’s office. The boy is now an adult.

In the eyes of the state, it doesn’t matter whether the victim is a boy or a girl. The same law applies.

Someone charged with second-degree sexual abuse is accused of having had non-consensual sex. That doesn’t mean the minor was forced into having sex, though.

“A minor can’t legally consent to have sex with an adult,” Frasier said.

If a victim is younger than 16 years old, the state would charge third-degree rape. For cases involving someone younger than 14, it is second-degree rape. And adults who have sex with a child under the age of 12 can be charged with first-degree rape. First-degree rape can also apply for cases involving older victims if sex is forced upon another.

Nicolaus said the psychological impacts are often more severe if the child is younger, the abuse involves violence or the perpetrator is related.

When boys are the victims of sex abuse, they often act out their anger, while a girl would internalize it, said Nicolaus.

Both boys and girls can convince themselves they aren’t victims, in part because the perpetrator grooms them to believe what they are doing is appropriate.

“Teenagers are curious about sex,” Nicolaus said. “But the adult knows it is wrong and shouldn’t take advantage of that interest.”