Courts (Credit: MediaNews Group)
A former volunteer Bucks County nonprofit softball team coach has been sentenced to probation for indecent contact with an underage player.
Sydney Palmer, 30, of Dorchester Lane, Richboro, was given one year of probation by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Risa Vetri Ferman for pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault for incidents occurring in Abington Township between August 2020 and February 2023, according to The Mercury.
The victim, who was on the Bucks County Militia softball team, according to The Mercury, was 16 years old. According to detectives, Palmer and the victim dated on-and-off for the past two years.
Palmer, a daughter of a police detective, must report her address to state police for the next 15 years, as part of Megan’s Law, according to the report.
“This is a perpetrator who will be on the sex offender registry for many years,” Assistant District Attorney Lauren Elizabeth Marvel told The Mercury. “In this case we … decided not to proceed on the sexually violent predator hearing.”
According to the report, prosecutors alleged Palmer had contact for her own sexual gratification with and without consent of the victim.
Other charges of sexual assault by a volunteer or employee of a nonprofit association, unlawful contact or communication with a minor, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal use of a communication facility and tampering with evidence in connection were dismissed against Palmer as part of the plea agreement, according to the report.
An investigation into the indecent assault began in February 2023 when Abington authorities received a ChildLine report on the relationship between a 16-year-old victim and a travel softball coach named “Syd,” according to detectives.
Palmer and the victim had been in a hotel room together while attending a travel tournament, detectives said. Once Palmer was identified, the victim’s parents were contacted over the indecent relationship, police said.
It was revealed the victim’s mother found text conversations between the pair two years ago, and when confronted about it, the victim denied any wrongdoing, police said.
Upon downloading the contents of the victim’s phone, a Snapchat account registered to Palmer was found to have video-called the victim numerous times. Two of Palmer’s phones were seized during a search warrant, and she eventually gave a statement. In it, Palmer revealed she picked up the victim, away from the home, and drove them to school on multiple occasions without the parents knowing, police said.
Palmer, detectives alleged, coordinated with the girl for Palmer to log into the girl’s Snapchat account and delete their conversations, claiming detectives would find “a lot of bad stuff.”
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
