Soccer coach who molested Coachella Valley girl sentenced
City News Service
INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) – A 53-year-old soccer coach who groped and made repeated sexual advances toward a Coachella Valley girl was sentenced today to two years’ mandatory supervision.
Rosario Navarro Gonzalez of Menifee pleaded guilty in February to two felony counts of lewd acts on a minor. The plea was directly to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Michael Dest — over the objections of the District Attorney’s Office.
“Our offer and request to the court was that the defendant be sentenced to state prison,” agency spokeswoman Molly Smith told City News Service Tuesday.
During a hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, the judge sentenced Gonzalez to mandatory supervision — a form of probation — in lieu of jail, as well as directed him to serve nine months in a sheriff’s work release program, during which he’ll have to remain gainfully employed, and to register as a convicted sex offender under Penal Code section 290, barring him from contact with minors, except relatives.
According to sheriff’s investigators, the defendant coached girls’ soccer in the Palm Desert area and initiated communication with the victim in the summer of 2021, via social media when she was 13 years old.
Through a series of texts and chats, he convinced the girl to send him nude pictures of herself, which she did in exchange for gift cards and money, according to a sheriff’s arrest warrant affidavit filed in September 2022.
The communications continued with regularity, leading to at least one in-person rendezvous at a church parking lot in Desert Hot Springs during the autumn of 2021. The warrant declaration stated Gonzalez coaxed the youth into his vehicle, where he kissed and embraced her as she sat on his lap, pressing one of her hands to his crotch before she wriggled out of his grasp.
In February 2022, the defendant tracked the girl down while she shopped with a friend in a Temecula mall. He gave her a $200 gift card as a birthday present and kissed her before she moved away from him, investigators said.
The girl deleted many of the messages exchanged with Gonzalez, possibly to conceal their interactions, according to court papers.
After taking statements from the victim and the defendant, detectives ultimately determined there was sufficient evidence to arrest him, which occurred on Sept. 22, 2022.
He had no documented prior felony convictions.