Assistant soccer coach arrested

FILE PHOTO Gregory Paynter, women's assistant soccer coach, was arrested for breaking and entering and larceny.

After being arrested and charged with breaking and entering and larceny, the women's assistant soccer coach has been suspended indefinitely from his position.

Gregory Paynter, 31, was arrested at 4:13 a.m. in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Saturday, according to Lt. Hank Narramore of the Wrightsville Beach Police Department. Both charges are felony charges.

Paynter was apprehended and taken to the local station, where he was released the same morning.

After hearing breaking glass, arresting officer Robert Miller of the WPD said he and his partner saw Paynter walking across the street with golf clubs on his back.

Miller said the breaking glass turned out to be unrelated, but that Paynter looked "kind of suspicious," and when they called out to him, he dropped the golf clubs and took off running. "We caught up with him trying to hide into some bushes," he said.

Paynter was cooperative and helped locate the burglarized house, where police determined that there was a non-forced entry, and the owner of the house owned a set of golf clubs, according to Miller. Miller declined to comment on whether the golf clubs Paynter possessed were identical to those of the owner.

Paynter appeared in the 5th District Court of New Hanover County Court House in Wilmington, N.C., Monday where no plea was entered. He is scheduled to reappear Nov. 6 at the same courthouse.

Paynter's suspension will continue until the issue is resolved in the Wlimington-area court system, according to JMU Athletic Director Jeff Bourne.

The incident occurred during the women's soccer team's visit to Wilmington, N.C., for a game against the University of North Carolina-Wilmington Saturday.

Women's soccer coach Dave Lombardo declined to comment about the possibility of hiring another assistant coach. "We are waiting for the legal system to sort this out," he said. "As far as I am concerned, he is still a coach here."

Paynter is in his fifth year at JMU and joined the JMU coaching staff as an assistant coach in the spring of 1999.