Sexual abuse case against former Fleming Island HS coach dropped after statute of limitations passes

Yahoo

12-02-2025

Action News Jax obtained legal documents explaining how the case against a former high school wrestling coach facing allegations of sexual abuse was dropped.
The documents provided by state prosecutors show how that one-time coach at Fleming Island High School, Paul James Cobbert, was not criminally charged because the statute of limitations expired on the case.
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But Action News Jax Alexus Cleavenger learned Cobbert was suspended from his coaching position. The Clay County School District confirmed that after the sheriff's office made it aware of the allegations, Cobbert was suspended from his coaching position in 2024, and then he resigned early this year.
Prosecutors declined to bring charges against the former wrestling coach at Fleming Island High School after he was initially accused of sexually abusing a former student.
According to legal documents Action News Jax reviewed, the first alleged incident was sometime in March of 2018 and the sexual contact between the victim and Cobbert allegedly happened while the victim was between 16 and17 years old.
According to the disposition statement filed by the state attorney's office, Cobbert asked the victim to stay for 'extra lifts' after training sessions at the gym, which Cobbert owns.
The documents say he asked the alleged victim to touch him inappropriately seven or eight times.
Then there was another alleged incident in June of 2018 in Orlando.
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According to the documents, Cobbert caught the victim and another boy outside smoking marijuana and made the victim come into his room and lay in bed with him. Then, the victim said he woke up completely naked, face down, and Cobbert was 'on top of him completely naked.'
Cobbert said that he had known the victim since his freshmen year of high school but denied having any sexual contact with him until after he was 18 years old. That's according to the documents.
He also denied any sexual contact in Orlando.
Action News Jax Alexus Cleavenger asked Cobbert about the allegations and the case being dropped.
'I know there is a statute of limitations or something like that but there was also no evidence so...,' Cobbert told her.
The applicable charge in Cobbert's case would have been unlawful sexual activity, but it was discarded due to the statute of limitations running out on the case.
Meanwhile, some parents say they are frustrated Fleming Island High School administrators did not adequately inform them about the investigation into Cobbert.
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Cleavenger spoke with one parent, Lorrie Dwyer, who has two children attending Fleming Island High. She said the school did not come out with a statement to parents on the case.
However, the district told Action News Jax that a parent meeting was held before the wrestling season started this year to inform parents that there was an investigation involving Cobbert and that he would no longer be coaching this season.
But Dwyer said however the district notified the parents, it wasn't enough.
'I mean it's outrageous,' Dwyer said. 'It's outrageous that the community did not know about it.'
Cobbert maintained in his interview with Cleavenger that there was no evidence against him
'I think that at the end of the day we have an allegation,' Cobbert said. 'I'm not in handcuffs; I'm not arrested, and there is a reason for it.'
State records Action News Jax found online from the Department of Education show that Cobbert is still certified as a public school athletic coach until 2027.
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