Coach's Wife Who Pleaded Guilty To Raping Teen Football Player Now Claims He Was 'Willing Participant'

A 29-year-old Tennessee woman is claiming that the teenage boy she pleaded guilty to raping consented to having sex with her.

Kelsey McCarter pleaded guilty last year to the statutory rape of a 16-year-old football player, according to a 2017 Knoxville News Sentinel report. She met the teen through her husband, who worked as an assistant football coach at the high school the boy attended. The victim briefly lived with the couple, where he was repeatedly sexually abused by McCarter, who was sentenced to three years. 

Her attorney, Doug Trant said after her sentencing that his client “made a mistake. She'll move past it. She's young, and as you saw, her family is here in support of her. Her husband is strongly supportive of her.”

Now, that same lawyer is asking that a judge throw out the teen’s lawsuit against McCarter, which claims she repeatedly molested him.

“[The boy] claims that he suffered injury from the repeated ‘sexual abuse’ by Ms. McCarter,” Trant, wrote in a motion obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel. “However, the complaint is replete with factual allegations allowing the conclusion that [he] was a willing participant in numerous sexual encounters with Ms. McCarter.”

The boy and his brother moved into the couple’s home in July 2014 because of issues at home. McCarter’s husband, Justin McCarter, agreed to mentor the boys, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

kelsey mccarter

In 2015,  Justin McCarter told both boys to leave, even though he claims he didn’t know about his wife’s relationship with one of the brothers. Kelsey McCarter continued her sexual relationship with the football player and in late 2015, the teen moved back in with the married couple.

“By [the boy’s] own admission in the complaint, he continued to ‘submit’ to the sexual contacts with Ms. McCarter because he wanted to return to live with the McCarters,” Trant wrote in the new motion. “By his own admission in the complaint [the boy] desired and maintained a sexual relationship with Ms. McCarter in order to derive a personal benefit — initially to extend his stay at the McCarters’ residence and then to ensure his return therein.”

McCarter was caught after the victim posted a nude photo of Kelsey McCarter online, an image which led someone to call school officials, the Knoxville Sentinel News reports.

McCarter’s husband has since resigned from his job as an assistant coach.

[Photo: Knox County Sheriff's Office]