UPDATED 9 a.m., Jan. 13
A former volleyball coach at Richmond Hill High School could be spending up to six years behind bards for sending X-rated material to an underage student, including a video of himself masturbating, prosecutors announced.
Luis Rodriguez, 45, a resident of Freeport, Long Island, was found guilty last December of charges including attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, disseminating indecent materials to minors and endangering the welfare of a child.
“The defendant was a trusted coach and teacher. He was someone whom parents believed their children would be safe with. But this defendant violated that trust,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement on Jan. 12. “This coach used an extracurricular school activity to prey on this young victim. This case should serve as a clear and unmistakable warning that law enforcement will arrest and prosecute sexual predators. This defendant is now going to prison as punishment for his actions and to protect society.”
Rodriguez coached the girl’s volleyball team and was an attendance teacher at Richmond Hill High School, located at 89-30 114th St., in October 2014, when he first made lewd contact with a then-15-year-old girl and member of the team.
According to Brown, Rodriguez contacted the girl multiple times through text message or the FaceTime video chat and sent her sexually explicit messages. He asked the teenager to inappropriately touch herself and to take and send him selfies of her naked.
In one instance, law enforcement sources said, Rodriguez expressed his desire to have sex with the girl and also wanted her to give him oral sex.
During the same period, authorities noted, Rodriguez sent to the victim’s cellphone a video of him masturbating.
Members of the 102nd Precinct Detective Squad, after being alerted to the lewd activity, arrested Rodriguez on Nov. 7, 2014. He now faces up to seven years behind bars when he is sentenced on Jan. 12, 2017.
