Vanguard Analysis: Patch’s Troubling Coverage of Football Coach Accused of Sex with Underaged Girl

In early June, former Dixon High JV Football Coach Troy Hensley, 37, was arrested for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with, and later threatening, a 17-year-old Dixon resident, over a 3 1/2-month period in 2012 at multiple locations in Davis, according to a release from the Davis Police Department.

However, our attention focused on the incident when the Dixon Patch published a story entitled, “Did Dixon’s Vice Mayor Influence Bail Reduction for Hensley’s Release?”

Reporter Lindsey Hickman wrote, “[I]t seems that he has found a prominent ally in Dixon’s Vice Mayor, Dane Besneatte.”

Ms. Hickman writes, “Besneatte, who has before represented Hensley in a Solano County criminal courtroom, once again came to his former client’s aid by writing a letter to Yolo County Superior Court Judge Rosenberg encouraging Hensley’s release from jail.”

“While Besneatte is the Vice Mayor of Dixon, and a local attorney who has made his living defending his clients in court, Besneatte maintains that he wrote the character letter to the judge as a personal individual,” she continues.  “And while no one would argue that an elected official has the right that any other private citizens have, and are free to support whomever they choose to, people question if it was appropriate for Besneatte to sign the letter as the Vice Mayor of Dixon.”

Judge Rosenberg, following bail schedule, reduced bail from $1 million to $450,000 on June 9.

If it seems a strange accusation that a vice mayor would influence bail reduction for any judge, consider that Judge Rosenberg is not just any judge.  He was a two-time mayor of Davis in his three terms on council from 1984 to 1996, after which he was elected to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.

As one of former Governor Gray Davis’ big fundraisers, he would be appointed judge in 2003 and has served as presiding judge for a number of years.

As Mr. Besneatte points out, “The Judge [p]residing on the case was the Mayor of Davis, so I don’t think he would care about me being the Vice Mayor because he wouldn’t think it was a big deal. I wasn’t trying to capitalize on the City, I just wanted to show the Court that I believed he would show up, and he is no danger. Most people don’t know me, so I didn’t think anyone would care about this.”

While Ms. Hickman interviewed quite a few people, including the vice mayor, in writing her story, one thing she never checked on was whether the judge in this case acted according to the bail schedule.

In late June, the Vanguard wrote Ms. Hickman regarding her coverage, but we never received a response from her.  However, Carlos Villatoro, the Associate Regional Editor of the North Bay Region for the Patch, responded.

“The article that we wrote about the Dixon vice mayor came to us from a source who was disturbed about the letter that Besneatte wrote. It is a tradition at Patch that we write about the stories that people care about. How do we know what they care about?  They tell us. This was one such story,” Mr. Villatoro said.

“We raised the question in our article and gave it to the people to talk about. While it is fairly common for attorneys of people who are accused of crimes to gather character letters to present to the judge, it is not common for the judge to throw those letters aside and not take them into consideration,” he said.  He then added, “I know this from firsthand experience.”

On Wednesday, the firm representing Mr. Hensley became concerned enough about the “the numerous inaccuracies that have been reported in this case by local media outlets in both Yolo and Solano Counties” that they made what they called a rare decision to respond.

In a release from Attorney Steven Sabbadini, the firm stated, “These inaccuracies need to be corrected as they affect Mr. Hensley’s reputation in the community and may hamper his ability to obtain a fair trial.”

Mr. Sabbadini notes, “Contrary to statements made in several local newspapers, Mr. Hensley has not been charged with child molestation crimes.”

Instead, Mr. Hensley is alleged to have had a sexual relationship with the alleged victim starting on May 31, 2012, when the alleged victim was four months younger than 18.

That relationship continued until she was well past 18 years of age in April, 2013 – a total of 11 months.

He states, “There is no allegation of force and the acts engaged in were alleged to have been voluntary in nature.  “

He also notes that the Davis Police Department’s press release from May 31, 2013, states that “it was determined that the suspect and the minor victim had engaged in a sexual relationship for 3 ½ months in 2012.”

Mr. Sabbadini responds: “This statement was repeated in many papers, as a fact that had been ‘determined,’ as opposed to an allegation made by an alleged victim.”

The press release states, “Hensley is a former youth basketball coach in Dixon and has had contact with young females.”

“Most of the local media printed this statement as the truth.  There is an implication in this statement that Mr. Hensley coached female athletes,” Mr. Sabbadini writes.  However, all of Mr. Hensley’s coaching activities involved coaching male athletes.

“The May 30^th Davis Police Department press release tends to mislead the public into believing that Mr. Hensley has had widespread contact with young female athletes during his previous coaching assignments, implying improper behavior with female athletes.  The implication is both unfounded and unfair to Mr. Hensley,” Mr. Sabbadini writes.

Steven Sabbadini also takes exception to a comment by Deputy DA Deanna Hays, who on July 29, 2013, referred to the existence of certain “sex videos.”

“The Prosecutor advised that there was a need to have the alleged victim come in and review ‘sex videos’ to determine whether the videos depicted the alleged victim,” Mr. Sabbini writes.  “The videos did not depict the alleged victim.  In fact, the videos only depict consensual conduct between Mr. Hensley and his wife.”

The statement in the Dixon Patch that “Hays states that the records contained sex videos captured by Hensley during the relationship … implying the relationship between Mr. Hensley and the alleged victim is patently false,” Mr. Sabbadini argued.

Typically, preliminary hearings get delayed as it takes time to gather up the evidence in case and properly assure that each side has discovery.  It is fairly typical for one side or the other to file motions to continue as they await all of the new evidence.

In this case, the defense notes that the prosecution and police were in possession of a large volume of new information for well over a month, but this information was only provided to the defense one business day before the hearing. 

“The information contains thousands of pages of materials, including texts, i-chats, SMS messages, phone records, GPS records, as well as videos and photographs from several phones,” said Mr. Sabbadini.  “The Defendant has a right to examine this new information, and has a right to confront and cross-examine witnesses.  The Defendant has a right to have his counsel be prepared in carrying out that task.  The Defense also believes there is exculpatory information contained in these new materials, especially the approximate 1,500 pages of text messages between Mr. Hensley and the alleged victim in this case.”

Mr. Sabbadini takes issue with the Dixon Patch article from July 29, 201,3 that referred to the prosecution as a “prepared prosecution team” and to the defense as “unprepared.”

He called this “one-sided reporting, patently unfair to Defense Counsel who had just received thousands of pages of information one (1) business day prior to the Hearing.”

Finally, Mr. Sabbadini counters that a “set of charges in this case refer to the alleged victim’s allegation of being threatened by Mr. Hensley between January 1, 2013 to April 30, 2013 (counts 25 and 26).”

He notes the press release that states “it was also determined that Hensley had made threats to harm the victim and others if she reported the relationship to the police.”

Mr. Sabbadini writes, “This exact quote was reported in many of the local papers as a fact that had been ‘determined.’  In reality, the allegations of threats are just that, allegations of the alleged victim, and should have been reported in that manner.”

Mr. Hensley is accused of committing a number of serious offenses which could result in a very lengthy sentence.  He is entitled to a fair trial.  Being tried in the press is not the best policy here and we hope that wiser heads will prevail.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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