Coach Gets 3 Years for Molestation
A former Lawndale Little League coach was sentenced in Torrance Superior Court Thursday to three years in state prison for molesting two of his team members.
Michael Steese, 34, pleaded no contest in June to two misdemeanor counts of molesting the boys, who were 10 and 11 when the incidents occurred last December and April at Steese’s home, authorities said.
The sentence imposed by Judge John P. Shook was less than the five-year term recommended by Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Geltz. Steese’s conviction marks the second time in two years that a league volunteer has been arrested for molestation.
Two years ago, Lawndale Little League team manager William Anthony Boguille, 23, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery for regularly pulling down his players’ pants to spank them. Boguille, who denied that those events constituted molestation, was ordered to perform community service and was placed on three years’ probation.
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