PHOENIX - William Roberts, a former basketball coach at Peoria High School, was acquitted of all charges after testifying in his trial. Roberts, 46, had faced six counts of sexual conduct involving minors, related to incidents that allegedly occurred between 2006-2007 and 2011-2013. Although a grand jury had indicted him in July 2022, he was ultimately found not guilty on April 25.

During the trial, his attorney, Kristen Curry, asked him if he had ever led a victim to his living room while she was asleep. He firmly denied the accusations, replying, "That did not happen."

According to the probable cause statement, the alleged victims were minors at the time of the incidents, which reportedly occurred before Roberts became Peoria High School's head basketball coach. In 2011, he established "Team M’phasis," a nonprofit organization overseeing three youth basketball teams dedicated to mentoring and coaching.

One of the alleged victim’s relatives testified that she would frequently stay overnight at Roberts' apartment to help with cleaning. Roberts became head coach at Peoria High in the 2015-2016 season but was put on leave in December 2019 and resigned in May 2020.

Roberts' successor, Patrick Battillo, known to Phoenix Suns fans as "Mr. ORNG," is now facing his own legal troubles. He has been indicted on four counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. Battillo allegedly tried to convince a 15-year-old boy to send explicit videos in exchange for money via Snapchat and is accused of making sexually inappropriate comments to two other students through the same platform.

The Peoria Unified School District stated that Roberts underwent consistent background checks during his tenure and maintained an IVP fingerprint clearance card. If any issues had surfaced regarding his clearance, they would have been notified by the Arizona Department of Education or the Department of Public Safety.