Ex-coach accused of sexual assault found dead

HOUSTON The Brazoria County Sheriff's Department says they were called to an apparent suicide at Surfside Beach in Brazoria County after a concerned citizen saw a vehicle parked there overnight. Authorities found Ian Crowe's body in the car. Steven Halpert, Crowe's attorney, said Crowe had committed suicide by carbon monoxide.

Crowe, 38, was charged last week with four counts of sexual assault with a child and one count of indecency with a child after allegations of a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old player on a Bellaire girls soccer team he coached. He was accused of sexually assaulting the girl for about a month. Bellaire police say it came to light after Crowe's wife alerted the victim's parents.

According to the prosecution, the sexual assault started in June 2009 when Crowe was hired as a private coach for the girl. The state says the victim reported meeting with Crowe 10 to 20 times in a Bellaire parking garage and having sexual encounters in the back seat of his Suburban. Prosecutors say the victim reported Crowe became increasingly aggressive with each encounter.

Halpert says Crowe was fired from his job last Friday and that he left notes to family and professed his innocence of the charges, saying he felt he'd been found guilty by police and others.

"The stigma, just the name alone resonates in people something very negative. So if you're accused, you're automatically judge guilty by just a stranger," Halpert told Eyewitness News.

He also told us Crowe left behind one-year-old twins and that his wife is seven months pregnant.