Moore High School Coach Arrested For Child Sex Crimes

A Moore basketball coach is arrested today on a complaint of lewd acts with a child. The girl making the accusations says it's been happening for the past two years.

Aaron Howell, 39, is behind bars. He's the head basketball coach for Moore High School and was booked Monday afternoon on one complaint of lewd acts.

Howell is accused of touching the private parts of a 16-year-old girl. Oklahoma City Police arrested him after the girl went to her school counselor, who got the girl's mom involved.

"I'm going to protect her, you know, I believe her 100%, I'm going to stand behind her and I'm going to fight it to the end," said the girl's mother.

According to the police report, the girl says Howell "puts his hands down her shirt and fondles her breast" and "also puts his hands down her pants" to touch her genitals.

"If it can happen right up under my nose, the most protective mother out there, there's no telling, you know, there's no telling what could be going on," the mother said.

Howell is the head basketball coach at Moore High School and teaches at Moore Alternative Education, also known as Vista Academy. We found his class schedule on the school's website. None of the alleged encounters took place at school - the girl says it always happened at Howell's home "in the living room and kitchen when nobody is around."

"You'd want to kill someone if they did that to one of your kids," said Tony Hinojosa, Howell's neighbor. "When you start thinking about someone abusing a young girl like that, it's really hard to understand when you're a parent."

The girl told police Howell never tried to have sex with her. According to the police report, the last incident was in November of 2013 at Howell's house.

The mother tells us her daughter does not go to either of the schools where Howell teaches and coaches.