A Baltimore County softball coach accused of sexually abusing a girl he coached pleaded guilty Monday, just as jury selection was set to begin, in a deal that calls for him to serve 10 years in prison.

Michael Joseph Pusateri, 60, of Nottingham, pleaded guilty to one count of felony sexual abuse of a minor. He originally faced charges including rape, assault, sexual abuse of a minor and solicitation of child pornography. Police said the girl was 17 when the abuse was reported. 

The remaining state charges will be dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Pusateri was a Parkville Recreation Council softball coach and served as a volunteer assistant coach at Kenwood High School. He also coached teams in Middle River and the Overlea-Fullerton area, according to police.

The girl met Pusateri when she was about 8 years old, according to a statement of facts Assistant State's Attorney Kayla York read into the record Monday. A few years later, he recruited her to play on his softball team.

Over the years, Pusateri’s behavior progressed to inappropriate touching and remarks about the girl’s body, eventually escalating to sexual contact, according to the statement. The victim said he never explicitly threatened her but “would remind her that he was her coach and her parent’s boss at work,” York said.

Pusateri would text the girl excessively even after she stopped responding, York said. Her mother became suspicious and took her to a hospital for a sexual assault examination in July 2025. Notes from Pusateri to the girl expressing romantic love for her were found in her backpack, York said.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dennis Robinson agreed to sentence Pusateri to 25 years in prison, suspending all but 10 years. Formal sentencing is scheduled for Thursday. Pusateri also will be required to register as a Tier III sex offender for the rest of his life. He will be on five years of supervised probation after his release.

At the start of Monday’s hearing, Robinson questioned why he should accept a binding plea agreement limiting Pusateri’s active prison term to 10 years.

York told Robinson the agreement would spare the victim the trauma and scrutiny of testifying in open court. She said the victim had been consulted about the terms of the plea and agreed with them.

The 10-year active sentence exceeds state sentencing guidelines of four to nine years.

“I want to be clear about this,” Robinson said. “The reason I am doing this is primarily because it is a result that the victim wants and that it is acceptable to the victim.”

Robinson said he could potentially impose a longer sentence if something in the victim’s impact statement convinced him that 10 years was insufficient, though he acknowledged that was unlikely. If that happened, Robinson said, Pusateri would be allowed to withdraw his plea.

Pusateri has been held at the Baltimore County Detention Center since his arrest in September, 2025.

He also faces a pending federal prosecution on charges of producing child sexual abuse material, coercion and enticement, receipt of child sexual abuse material and possession of child sexual abuse material. Under the state plea agreement, Pusateri’s state sentence will run concurrently with any sentence imposed in the federal case.

According to the federal indictment, Pusateri sent sexually explicit text messages to the girl between April and August 2025 and later engaged in a sexual relationship with her. He allegedly asked her to meet him in parking lots of local businesses to engage in sex acts.

Federal prosecutors allege Pusateri groomed the girl through text messages and coerced and enticed her into sending him sexual images. He also sent her several sexually explicit images of himself, according to the Justice Department.

Baltimore County police uncovered more than 400 phone calls between Pusateri and the girl from March 21 through July 25, 2025, according to the Justice Department. A hearing in the federal case is scheduled for Oct. 13, according to online court records.

York and defense attorney, Peter Crawford, agreed to waive a presentence investigation so formal sentencing could be held later this week.