Coach Charged With 4 More Molestations
The preliminary hearing for a Van Nuys soccer coach, charged last week with sexually molesting five of his players, was postponed Thursday because he has been charged with molesting four more players, the district attorney’s office in Van Nuys said.
The additional charges were filed Wednesday against Steven Crawford Smith, a 46-year-old unemployed machinist, after more players from the California Youth Soccer Assn. were interviewed by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit.
“We would talk to one boy and he would lead us to other victims,” Detective Gary Lyon said.
Smith now faces 23 felony charges of oral copulation, sodomy and child molestation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold Lynn said.
At his arraignment Wednesday in Municipal Court in Van Nuys, Smith pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He remains in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $37,500 bail.
The molestations took place in Smith’s Van Nuys apartment between last June and April 5, Lynn said. He said the victims, boys 6 to 11 years old, frequently slept at Smith’s residence with the permission of their parents, who trusted the coach.
A new preliminary hearing has been scheduled for June 7 in Municipal Court.
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