PA: Boys Testify Against Sexual 'Hat Of Dares' Suspect

Thursday, November 13, 2008 – updated: 9:02 pm EST November 18, 2008
http://www.wpxi.com/news/17972471/detail.html

BUTLER, Pa. -- Two boys testified Tuesday against a seventh-grade basketball coach who is heading to trial on charges that he sexually abused them and another child.

Matthew Goettler, 25, of Butler, was charged by police last Wednesday after he was accused of sending improper texts and playing a sexual game called the "hat of dares" with the three underage boys.

Police said that after talking with two of the victims, ages 12 and 16, and inspecting the text messages, they determined that several violations of the crimes code had been committed from July through August 2008.

The game, police said, consisted of placing sexual dares in a hat, and each boy had to pull one out.

"Their name for the game that they were playing is the 'hat of dares.' Basically, they would play a game prior to that, a card game, a pool game and whoever would lose would pull something out of the hat and have to do that," said Cpl. Cheryl Polena of the Pennsylvania State Police. "The dares were pretty much all sexual type of things they had to do."

Some of the dares included streaking and shaving your arms, police said.

On Tuesday, a 16-year-old testified that he didn't know what he participated in the game, saying, "I didn't want to be called a wuss."

"The first time, I had to shave my body and drink urine," the 12-year-old testified. "The dares were already in the hat when I got there."

While they played "hat of dares," the victims said that Goettler furnished them with alcohol, according to the police report.

Also, in the police report, the 12-year-old victim said that Goettler has done some “nasty” things to him. The victim said the things included getting into a hot tub naked with Goettler, among other things.

Goettler is a basketball coach in the Moniteau School District and is a substitute teacher in the Butler School District.