Former Tennis Pro — Branford Resident — Receives Prison Sentence: Feds

BRANFORD, CT —In New Haven Superior Court, Tyler Purskey, 34, of Branford, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, suspended after serving eight years, for sending more than 9,000 sexually explicit text messages to a 12-year-old, officials announced.

Purskey, a former tennis pro, in January was found guilty by a jury after evidence at trial showed he sent in excess of 9,000 texts, including sexually explicit ones, to the child, prosecutors said. After his sentence is served, it will be followed by 15 years of sexual offender probation, according to New Haven State's Attorney John Doyle Jr.

The jury found him guilty of enticing a minor and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

As reported in January, Doyle said that according to evidence introduced at trial, Purskey texted the child from Sept. 3, 2019 to Nov. 1, 2019.

"The evidence showed that the defendant did this in an attempt to entice the minor into sexual activity," Doyle said. "At the time, the defendant was a tennis instructor for the minor child."
A former tennis pro at the Guilford Racquet & Swim Club, Purskey, then 30 and then of North Haven, was charged by Guilford Police in June 2020. Read that story here.

In 2022, club owner Sarah Boone told Patch there was an "incident" in September and Purskey was let go immediately.

"When we became aware that something was going on, we took immediate action," Boone told Patch at the time. She said then that as soon as the Club became aware of "what happened" Nov. 1,

Purskey was fired. Purskey had identified as the club's tennis pro on a LinkedIn page. He was assistant coach for Guilford boys’ tennis, per a report from 2016.

The charge of enticing a minor is when a person uses the internet to "knowingly persuade, induce, entice or coerce" a minor "to engage in prostitution or sexual activity ...," according to the state statute.

The case was investigated by the Guilford Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah E. Jones and Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney David J. Strollo, with assistance from Inspectors Michael Mastropetre and Kevin Grenier.for his extensive work in this investigation.