Former Costa Mesa High football coach pleads not guilty to soliciting a minor for sex
A former Costa Mesa High School football coach arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex from a detective posing online as a minor pleaded not guilty Friday in San Diego Superior Court, prosecutors said.
Jeremy Daniel Osso, 39, of Costa Mesa is being held in Vista in lieu of $250,000 bail.
He has been charged with communicating with a minor for sex, sending harmful matter to a minor and attempted solicitation of child pornography and burglary, according to San Diego County court records. All are felonies.
Osso allegedly corresponded in May and June with an undercover Carlsbad police detective posing as a 13-year-old, eighth-grade girl, according to a record of the arrest warrant. Some of the correspondence allegedly took place in an online chat room.
The officer works with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which involves thousands of agencies working on child abuse and online exploitation cases.
Osso allegedly identified as a 38-year-old man from Orange County and exchanged sexually explicit language with the undercover detective, whom he believed was a 13-year-old girl, and asked for nude photos, according to the warrant.
He also sent the undercover detective a photo of his genitalia and a video of him masturbating, according to the court records.
Carlsbad police and San Diego prosecutors have declined to comment.
The circumstances surrounding the burglary charge were unclear Friday.
Osso was arrested Wednesday in Irvine and turned over to Carlsbad police.
Osso, an Estancia High School alumnus, last worked at CMHS in 2011. He is currently on unpaid administrative leave from his jobs as a defensive coordinator for the varsity football team at University High School in Irvine and an instructional assistant at Irvine High School.
Irvine Unified School District officials have said they do not believe any Irvine schoolchildren are involved in the case.
Mesa’s principal fired Osso in 2011. He started as coach in 2006 and had also worked as an assistant coach from 2001 to 2003.
A status conference for the case is scheduled for June 26, with a preliminary hearing June 28 at the Vista courthouse.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
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