Soccer Coach Who Molested Coachella Valley Girl Sentenced

INDIO (CNS) - A 53-year-old soccer coach who groped and made repeated
sexual advances toward a Coachella Valley girl was sentenced to two
years' mandatory supervision on Tuesday.
  

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,
identified only as a team member, 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.