Sex Case Agreement Satisfies Prosecutor

Alan Thomas Rigby’s prosecutor said Monday that he was satisfied with the plea agreement in which the former physical education teacher pleaded guilty last week to 36 counts of child molestation in exchange for an expected maximum sentence of no more than 20 years in prison.

“That figure was in the ballpark and it spared these victims having to testify at a trial,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum said.

The charges involve 19 young people, most of them fifth- and sixth-grade students at Harbor Day School, a private school in Corona del Mar where Rigby taught two years ago. Many were young boys in a club that was led by Rigby and whose activities involved some sexual conduct. Others involved children in Rigby’s Irvine neighborhood.

Rigby, 41, agreed to plead guilty last Friday to the 24 felony and eight misdemeanor charges after Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown indicated that a possible penalty would be between 15 to 20 years in prison if the victims were spared having to testify at a trial. Had Rigby been convicted of all the counts at a trial, he could have received a sentence of nearly 80 years in prison.

The most serious counts Rigby pleaded guilty to involved lewd conduct. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10, and until then remains free on $200,000 bond.

Rosenblum said that he had discussed a possible plea agreement on Rigby’s case with the parents of all the victims and that they agreed that the terms would be adequate.

Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley, Rigby’s lawyer, refused to comment on the plea agreement or even to acknowledge his client’s plea.

“I have my reasons,” Kelley said.

Under Brown’s plea-negotiation procedures, the issue of Rigby’s guilty plea was discussed in open court and on the record. Although Rosenblum participated, the agreement was primarily between the judge and the public defender’s office.

Rigby was arrested in October, 1987, after neighborhood children told their parents that they saw Rigby lifting weights naked in his garage and that he showed them sex toys and pornographic magazines. At his preliminary hearing last year, several fifth- and sixth-grade boys testified that Rigby created a private club called the “Togas” and forced them into limited sexual acts as part of the initiation. They also said he forced them to sign an oath that they would not tell anyone.

At the time of Rigby’s arrest, Rosenblum said the case involved more victims than any other child molestation case in Orange County, although the charges were less serious than in many other such cases.

“What makes this case so serious is the number of victims and his position of trust as a teacher,” Rosenblum said.

Thirteen of the victims were students at Harbor Day School, where Rigby taught physical education, judo and was the track coach.

All of the alleged acts occurred between August, 1986, and March, 1987.

Rigby was arrested in 1979 on suspicion of child molesting, but the charges were reduced to disturbing the peace.

Rigby was under investigation in connection with the Irvine cases a month after he accepted the job at Harbor Day School in 1986. No arrest was made during that investigation, but those cases later were incorporated with the Harbor Day School cases.