CLAYTON — A ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County softball player was sexually assaulted twice by an umpire, and the abuse so disturbed her that, months later, she killed herself, her family says in a lawsuit filed this week.
Seventeen-year-old Holly James was a softball player at the Affton Athletic Association when she met Zachary Barebo, an umpire for her games, the suit says. Over the next several months, Barebo groomed Holly, until June 2023, police said, when he assaulted her.
On Feb. 20, 2024, Holly died by suicide. She left a note that blamed her death on the abuse, her family says.
On Sunday, Holly’s father, Jeffery James, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Barebo and the Affton Athletic Association, a facility south of Grant’s Farm with more than 10 baseball and softball fields. It alleges Barebo had been previously arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor, and Affton Athletic should have known.
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James is heartbroken, said his lawyer, Grant Boyd.
“The sad truth is that this situation was entirely preventable,†Boyd said in a statement. “Simple background checks and investigations should have been in place to prevent children from being exposed to people that pose a risk of danger.â€
James declined to be interviewed.
Barebo, his lawyer William Goldstein, and the Affton Athletic Association either could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.
The suit says Holly was 16 and playing on an Affton Athletic softball team when she met Barebo, who was employed as an umpire. Sometime after that, Holly became a part-time umpire for the association, and the two exchanged contact information.
Barebo started having sexual conversations with Holly and another teen on Snapchat, a popular mobile messaging app, according to a previous statement from Crestwood police Chief Jonathon Williams.
He sexually abused Holly on two different days in June 2023, the lawsuit and charges say.
Barebo
Months later, in September 2023, Barebo was charged with 11 counts of sodomy, child molestation and statutory rape. Nine of those charges accused him of the assaults on Holly and two accused him of sexually assaulting the other teen girl, who was 15, in one incident.
Police said he met up with the girls and assaulted them separately in his car in parking lots in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County.
Barebo was 23 when the charges were filed.
But after Holly’s death, prosecutors — without Holly as a witness — dismissed all of the charges against Barebo connected to Holly and one connected to the other girl. The same day, they amended the last remaining charge, for sodomy, to first-degree harassment, court records show.
In December last year, Barebo pleaded guilty to that charge in a deal that did not require him to register as a sex offender, court records show.
He later received a suspended execution of a four-year prison sentence; if he completes five years of probation, he won’t go to prison.
In March, less than two months after he was sentenced, prosecutors asked the court to revoke his probation, citing a violation that was not detailed in public filings. He’s scheduled to appear in court next month.
Sunday’s lawsuit claims the Affton Athletic Association acted negligently in hiring Barebo, who it says had been investigated and arrested by law enforcement in connection to child sex crimes prior to the June 2023 abuse.
Barebo in 2017 filed to expunge an arrest record for felony sodomy of a minor, the lawsuit says. Online court records indicate the request was dismissed and Sunday’s lawsuit says prosecutors were opposed to the expungement “because there was a sufficient factual basis to substantiate the sodomy.â€
The only criminal case in Missouri court records against Barebo is the one in connection to the Affton Athletic abuse.
“There is no doubt about it that Mr. James’ daughter should be here today and that this never should have happened,†Boyd said.
In February, James filed for approval of a confidential wrongful death settlement with a company called GameTime Tournaments. In that filing, James says the company contracted both Holly and Barebo to work as umpires for weekend tournament events in the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ area.
Sunday’s suit also accuses the association of lying to James and his family after Holly’s death:
Last year, the association got the family’s permission to use their name and Holly’s photo for an April 2024 fundraiser, the suit says. In return, the association would donate 20% of the event’s proceeds from concessions and merchandise sales to the Children Advocacy Services of Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, which helps victims of child sex abuse.
The family agreed and said they would match the donation.
But James said he recently confirmed the association never donated to the nonprofit.
Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of images each week; here's a glimpse at the week of March 30, 2025. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
