ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Zachary Barebo, 25, was charged in 2023 for 11 sex crimes involving two youth softball players. He pleaded guilty to harassment. One of the two alleged victims died by suicide in February 2024 before there could be a trial. She was the daughter of Jeff and Dawn James.

“I don’t want anyone to feel what we feel right now,” Dawn said.

They’ve asked for privacy by withholding their daughter’s name and picture. She was 17 when she died and 16 during the alleged abuse.

“She wanted to help everybody, and so much that she couldn’t help herself,” Dawn said.

Their lawsuit, filed by attorney Grant Boyd, points out that the coach had a prior arrest that anyone can find online.

“It’s the functional equivalent of Googling a Missouri court record. You search someone’s name, and this would have come up,” Boyd said.

Barebo asked the courts with a petition in 2018 to expunge his 2017 arrest for felony sodomy. The record remains online because he failed to have his background cleared.

“Always protecting children and taking no risk with protecting children is easy,” Boyd said.

Boyd says he used to play hockey for the association. He remembers their lessons of accountability.

“Those were values that were instilled in us, they were values they demanded of us, so I’m curious whether this association is going to practice what they preach because those kids, those athletes, and these families deserve an answer to that,” he said.

In a phone interview, a spokesperson for the Affton Athletic Association said the organization would consider commenting. We’re still waiting to hear from them.

FOX 2 also personally visited the home of former coach Barebo. No one was home and reporter Chris Hayes left his phone number.

Barebo’s criminal case nearly dissolved after his victim’s death. He pleaded guilty to harassment 10 months later.

“This case was weakened severely by the tragic death of an essential victim-witness. We mourn her loss. We did our best to hold this defendant accountable with his guilty plea based on the remaining admissible evidence,” St. Louis County Prosecutor Melissa Price Smith said.

“We intend to finish what the state started and hold him accountable,” Boyd said.

Now, the battle moves to civil court, where the James family will fight for changes to protect future players.

“It could have been stopped, and (our daughter) was failed,” Dawn said.