Hartford Basketball Coach Charged With Child Enticement: Feds

HARTFORD, CT — A Hartford basketball coach has been charged with child enticement and drug dealing crimes, according to a statement from federal prosecutors. Danny Lawhorn, 30, has been in custody since Oct. 5 when he was arrested on related state charges.

According to prosecutors, Lawhorn was a coach for a program registered with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) from 2018 to 2020.

In the spring of this year, the family of a minor female paid Lawhorn $700 and signed a contract for the girl to play in the program, which they believed to still be part of the AAU.

Lawhorn and his girlfriend served as the girl's host family and allowed her to stay with them at their home in Hartford. Other girls from the program also stayed at the house at times.

Lawhorn used his cellphone to text the minor a voice message asking her to give him a massage on the morning of June 13. When the minor went to Lawhorn’s bedroom, he directed her to massage his groin and inner thighs with her hands and, ultimately, sexually assaulted her, according to prosecutors.

Lawhorn was arrested later that morning on related state charges for second-degree sexual assault. Police found distribution quantities of crack cocaine in his pocket.

Two other girls reported that Lawhorn had repeatedly sexually assaulted them when they played on his AAU basketball team in 2017 and 2019, respectively, according to prosecutors.

Both girls were under age of 18 at the time they were sexually assaulted and said that Lawhorn first asked for a massage before he sexually assaulting them.

Hartford police arrested Lawhorn Oct. 5 on three counts of second-degree sexual assault charges for assaulting one of the girls. At the time of his arrest, Lawhorn possessed about 300 wax paper sleeves containing a white powder substance that tested positive for fentanyl, according to prosecutors.

Lawhorn is facing federal charges of enticement and attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, which carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine base (“crack”) and fentanyl, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.