A former Cherry Creek High School softball coach has been sentenced to 10 years’ probation after pleading guilty in a child sex crime case.

Paul “Pablo” Severtson was sentenced Monday in Arapahoe County District Court, according to the district attorney’s office.

Severtson was arrested in July as part of a child sex crime investigation connected to a Virginia girl who took her own life.

In March, local investigators were contacted by the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia about the juvenile girl. Through the course of the Virginia investigation, authorities discovered that the girl had been communicating with an individual, identified as Severtson, on social media messaging apps.

In December, Severtson pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child, a class four felony, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office. He is sentenced to 10 years probation under intensive sex offender supervision.

Severtson must register as a sex offender, complete drug, alcohol and mental health evaluations according to the sex offender program, and he cannot have any contact with children under the age of 18. As part of the sentence, he can not own firearms and his use of the internet is prohibited. The court ordered Severtson to pay more than $10,000 in fines and court costs.

Severtson coached the girls softball team at Cherry Creek High School and he also worked as a paraprofessional in the district starting in August 2020. He was fired when he was arrested by investigators with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. The criminal case did not involve any Cherry Creek students.