A man who identified himself as a youth baseball coach was arrested Thursday after being accused of inappropriately touching minors in a Disney resort swimming pool.
- Man who said he was youth coach charged with molestation
- Incident allegedly happened at Disney's Pop Century Resort
- Man said he was there for baseball tournament
Nicholas Ryan Groth, 26, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, was booked into the Orange County Jail just after 2 a.m.
At about 9:20 p.m. Sunday, a boy was playing with friends at a pool at Disney’s Pop Century Resort when a man who was in the pool allegedly squeezed the child’s backside a number of times when he was retrieving a ball near the man, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office report. The boy and friends told deputies that the man at the pool was "acting weird and touching our butts."
Deputies investigated the boy's claims that the man said he was a 14-under baseball coach from Wisconsin and was staying at the resort for the Disney's International Salute to Baseball tournament.
On Wednesday morning, an investigator met the boy at a baseball field at ESPN Wide World of Sports, where he pointed to Groth as the person who touched him. Detectives who talked with Groth at Caribbean Beach Resort, where he had moved, noted that during the interview, Groth "appeared to be in a mental struggle," and that he "didn't answer question regarding if he touched the children's buttocks in the pool with direct answers, but rather took some time to reply," an arrest affidavit said.
Groth faces three counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim under 12. He is being held on no bond.