A former highschool athletic coach accused of sexually assaulting a dozen teenage women was sentenced Monday to 36 years in jail after pleading no contest to felony fees, officers stated.
Richard Alexander Turner, 65, entered the plea throughout a preliminary listening to to find out whether or not there was sufficient proof for the case to go to trial, court docket data present. He pleaded no contest to 13 counts of sexual assault involving 12 women, in keeping with the Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace.
“He’ll now face the stark actuality of seemingly spending the remainder of his days in jail,” prosecutors stated in an announcement.
Turner was going through 21 felony fees stemming from interactions with college students he labored with from 2017 to 2022 at excessive colleges within the San Fernando Valley, in keeping with court docket data. On Monday, he pleaded no contest to 1 depend of forcible rape, three felony counts of sexual penetration of an unaware sufferer on account of fraud or misrepresentation, 4 counts of sexual penetration by overseas object and 5 counts of sexual battery involving an unconscious particular person.
The plea saves Turner’s victims — who ranged in age from 15 to 17 on the time of the assaults, prosecutors stated — from “the traumatic expertise of testifying at trial,” the district legal professional’s workplace stated.
Turner’s arrest in September 2022 got here after a cheerleader at Birmingham Neighborhood Constitution Excessive College accused him of touching her inappropriately.
Comparable allegations had been raised in opposition to Turner 5 years earlier. In 2017, a pupil at Van Nuys Excessive College informed officers that Turner touched her inappropriately. A police report was filed, however Los Angeles police cited a scarcity of proof within the case, and no arrest was made or fees filed.
Turner had been working as an unbiased contractor on the time. Los Angeles Unified College District officers stated his contract was terminated six weeks after he began working at Van Nuys Excessive College, after a feminine pupil alleged “misconduct.”
After the Birmingham allegation, police related Turner’s title to the sooner sexual assault report. Finally, different accusers from the constitution faculty and Van Nuys Excessive got here ahead.
After the preliminary fees in opposition to Turner have been introduced, two extra victims spoke to authorities. All have been assaulted whereas getting remedies for sports activities accidents, prosecutors stated.
Some victims reported that Turner turned violent through the assaults, whereas others didn’t understand on the time that they’d been sexually assaulted, L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón stated.
“It’s crushing for the victims, their households and all of us that, in our training techniques, somebody would reap the benefits of our youth,” Gascón stated on the time Turner was charged.
On Monday, he applauded the scholars who needed to the braveness to talk out.
“All 12 victims got here collectively to make sure that the defendant might now not be capable to abuse his place of belief and hurt anybody else,” Gascón’s assertion stated.
