3 Boys Allegedly Molested by Coach Testify at Hearing

Three children testified Wednesday during the first day of preliminary hearings for Alan Thomas Rigby, a former physical education teacher accused of sexually molesting 17 children from a private Corona del Mar grade school and his Irvine neighborhood.

Rigby, 40, of Irvine has pleaded not guilty to 32 counts, including 24 felony counts of lewd acts with a minor and eight misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting children, or indecent exposure.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum said all 17 of the alleged victims will testify during the hearing, which is expected to last two to four weeks before Judge Russell A. Bostrom at Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach.

Thirteen of the alleged victims were students at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar, where Rigby was a physical education teacher and track coach during the 1986-87 school year. The 17 alleged victims include three girls between the ages o 13 and 15, and the rest are boys ages 10 to 14. All of the alleged acts occurred between August, 1986, and March, 1987.

A 12-year-old witness testified Wednesday that in September, 1986, he was in Rigby’s office and that the teacher showed him a movie in which a woman’s breasts were exposed. He said he later saw Rigby masturbating in his office.

The three sixth-graders testified that Rigby supervised an elite boys club at the school and that prospective members were required to masturbate as part of the initiation. The boys said Rigby also required them to sign a typewritten oath agreeing not to discuss the club publicly.

The boys, who were fifth-graders at the time, said word of the club, called the Togas, began circulating among a small group of friends shortly after school started in September, 1986, and the group eventually grew to seven members. A three-day tryout was required for prospective members, and two fourth-graders were denied membership because they were too young, the boys testified.

William G. Kelley, Rigby’s court-appointed attorney, in questioning the boys, suggested that Rigby allowed one of the students to view a movie in which a woman’s breasts were exposed as a joke, and that he did not intend any harm.

The attorney also suggested that one witness was angry because Rigby had disciplined him for fighting in school and that another witness was angry because he believed Rigby had cheated while officiating a judo competition the student felt that he should have won.

Both witnesses denied that anger had driven them to make the accusations.

Cross-examination centered on whether the boys had, before the hearing, discussed their pending testimony. Two of the boys testified that the seven had discussed the upcoming trial with each other individually and once as a group. However, they said they could not remember specifically what was said.

Most of the attorneys’ questions were phrased so the boys could give brief answers. Mothers of the two 11-year-olds sat with them on the witness stand, and their fathers sat at the prosecutor’s table. Parents of the 12-year-old also were present in the courtroom during his testimony.

Rigby, dressed in a beige suit, sat quietly during the proceedings, conferring occasionally with his attorney. He has been jailed in lieu of $200,000 bond since his arrest in September.

Rigby’s wife, Cathy, was not present at the hearing. She was pregnant with the couple’s second child at the time of his arrest. Rigby was released from jail a few hours to be with his wife shortly after she delivered the baby in November, Kelley said.