ORLANDO, Fla. – A youth baseball coach from Wisconsin bonded out of jail on Friday morning, weeks after deputies arrested him on charges of inappropriately touching boys at a Disney World hotel.
Nicholas Groth, 26, was arrested on five counts of lewd and lascivious molestation on July 7.
Groth was initially denied bond after his arrest earlier this month, but on Thursday a judge ordered it to be set at $250,000.
Groth had an outpouring of support from his home state of Wisconsin. Records show more than 30 letters were submitted to the court praising the coach as a talented leader.
The charges stem from the Fourth of July weekend, when Groth was in town for a baseball tournament.
A 7-year-old boy told police that a man grabbed him three times while he was swimming in a pool at Disney's Pop Century Resort in Lake Buena Vista, according to authorities.
According to an Orange County Sheriff's Office incident report, the boy and his parents told deputies that Groth grabbed the boy's buttocks. The boy told authorities that he told the man to stop and leave him alone after his buttocks were touched the first time, the report said.
The man touched the boy twice more, authorities said. The child swam away, got out of the pool and told his father what happened, according to officials.
Groth apologized after one of the times, saying he lost his balance.
An arrest was made after investigators took one of the victims to a game that Groth was coaching and the victim identified him.
As part of Groth's conditions for his release, his passport was revoked and he was ordered to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18.