Former Cal State Bakersfield men’s basketball player and interim assistant coach Kevin Mays is awaiting trial on pimping and several other charges, ESPN’s Shwetha Surendran reported Thursday.
Mays, who was 32 when he was arrested in September, is currently in jail and reportedly is being held without bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 13, according to ESPN, which disclosed the 11 criminal and misdemeanor charges he faces.
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In addition to human trafficking, Mays was charged with possession of an automatic firearm and high-capacity magazines, possession of methamphetamine and marijuana with intent to sell, and possession of more than 600 images of juvenile or child pornography, some of which depicted children as young as 4 years old, ESPN reported.
Mays has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Rod Barnes, the former long-time head coach of CSUB’s men’s basketball team, coached Mays from 2014-16. In Mays’ second and final season with the Roadrunners, he helped the program reach its first and only NCAA Division I tournament.
In 2019, he reportedly applied to become CSUB’s player development coordinator. He was offered the position and then, in June of this year, served as an interim assistant coach under Barnes. In his new position, Mays will make just over $3,000 a month, according to an ESPN report citing school records.
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Barnes reportedly received a tip in late August from an anonymous email sender who claimed Mays was working as a pimp in Las Vegas, Oregon, Washington and California.
In the same email, the tipster identified an alleged victim whom Mays allegedly had been trafficking for several months, who the Bakersfield Police Department later determined was 23 years old, ESPN reported.
The alleged victim was not a member of CSUB’s faculty, staff or student body, ESPN reported, citing Kern County court records and university police.
“Fix it quickly or the entire staff will go down,” a source wrote in an email to Barnes, according to ESPN. The sender described it as “the first warning and the last warning.”
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Barnes forwarded the email to CSUB’s human resources office, which launched an investigation that revealed Mays’ nefarious activities.
The school announced in September that Barnes and then-athletic director Kyle Conde, who were reportedly alarmed by Mays’ alleged pimping behavior, would no longer serve in their roles.
Conder filed the lawsuit against CSUB, claiming it was retaliation for reporting the incident, and Conder said he was trying to warn the administration about “potential criminality and misconduct” at the university, ESPN reported.
Still, in a separate lawsuit filed by two anonymous softball players — who are suing the school and a softball coach alleging harassment, illegal weapons dealing and more — Conder is accused of exhibiting “a pattern… of failing to respond when complaints are filed against Coach Mays,” according to ESPN.
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The informant then sent an email informing police that Mays’ alleged victim was arrested for driving under the influence and was traveling in a car provided to her by Mays, according to the report.
ESPN’s report, citing a subsequent police investigation, details that Mays used a CSUB account to rent the car, which the alleged victim used for sex work.
After conducting a sting operation, Sacramento police reportedly interviewed the alleged victim, who described Mays as her “boyfriend,” but police discovered text messages between them that showed Mays was “involved and controlling” in her sex work.
