Ex-coach may get off GPS tracker

GRAND JUNCTION — A former high school girls basketball coach charged in an alleged affair with a player may be taken off a court-ordered tracking device.

Deputy District Attorney Mark Hand told a judge Tuesday that attorneys representing 33-year-old Mathew Lindholm are expected to request the removal of a global positioning system (GPS) ankle monitor, a device which tracks Lindholm’s movements.

Hand told District Judge Richard Gurley the request is expected at Lindholm’s next court date, June 10. The case is also set for plea hearing that day.

Lindholm, who’s been forced to wear the GPS monitor since his arrest on Feb. 20, has had no violations detected by the system over the past three months, Hand said.

Under the terms of a protection order, Lindholm is currently not allowed contact with his former players and is prohibited from being at Central High.

Hand said the District Attorney’s Office hasn’t yet taken a position on the expected GPS removal bid.

Lindholm, Central High School’s former girls basketball coach who also was a business teacher at the school, is free on $10,000 bond and charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. A second felony charge alleges a pattern of abuse.

Lindholm on Feb. 25 resigned his teaching job at Central after surrendering on a Mesa County Sheriff’s arrest warrant alleging a months-long affair with one of his former players.

Convictions on either of the two felony charges would place Lindholm on lifetime sex offender supervision.

Reach Paul Shockley at pshockley@gjfreepress.com