Ex-Coach Sentenced in Molestation of 16-Year-Old Student

A former Carlsbad High School basketball coach who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges involving the molestation of a 16-year-old student was sentenced Tuesday to two weeks in jail and three years’ probation and fined $500.

John Nelson had originally been charged with two felony counts--forced oral copulation and digital penetration--as well as a misdemeanor charge of child molestation. He agreed to plead guilty in January to the misdemeanor in a bargain with the district attorney’s office that was designed to avoid having the female student testify in court.

The molestation occurred off-campus last October.

Nelson, 46, who lost his job when he pleaded guilty, must also register himself as a sex offender in any community in which he resides.

In handing down the sentence, Vista Municipal Judge Michael Burley chastised the school district for failing to quell rumors that spread around the school about the relationship between Nelson and the victim.

“Teachers, coaches and students at that school essentially chased her out of that school,” Burley said.

Burley noted that the victim had in no way encouraged Nelson, and that the probation report said that students and school staff have described Nelson as being “flirtatious” with students and that he often told “dirty” or “nasty” jokes. In the probation report, one of the students said that on one occasion Nelson patted the victim on the buttocks during class.

In a letter by the victim read to the court Tuesday by a counselor, she said: “I want him to get the help he needs. I want him to understand what he did to me was WRONG!

“This situation still hurts a lot, and may have ruined my life. The plea bargain implies that I was somehow a part of this. I didn’t want this . . . I was raped! There is no penalty that can take that away.”

The victim’s father criticized prosecutors for agreeing to a plea bargain.

“I feel the State of California robbed us of the opportunity to take Mr. Nelson to court and convict him of all three charges,” the father said.

The father told the court that after the October incidents and before the charges arose earlier this year, Nelson harassed his daughter. After the charges were filed in January, rumors circulated around the school that the victim had “fallen in love” with Nelson and that she had encouraged Nelson’s repeated advances, the father told the court.

Nelson physically injured his daughter during the molestation, the father said. “This was not sex, this was bondage. This was domination. This was torture.”

At one point during her father’s testimony, the victim left the courtroom in tears, only to return several minutes later.

Outside the courtroom, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Carver said the victim and her father agreed to the plea bargain at the time.

In addressing the court, Carver noted that the victim did not want Nelson to serve prison time, while the father wanted him to receive the maximum punishment of one year imprisonment.

Outside the courtroom, the father said “I would’ve liked to have seen a little more than two weeks” imposed on Nelson, but guessed that Burley “was just trying to be practical,” given the number of prisoners released before serving the full sentence.

One of Nelson’s basketball players and three parents of former students of Nelson testified as character witnesses for him, saying that Nelson had made a mistake, but that he has made great contributions to the community, including having won the Silver Star and the Purple Heart during the Vietnam War.

Nelson, with his voice trembling, apologized for his actions and told the court and victim that he was “terribly sorry.”

“My family has suffered, and I apologize to them deeply,” Nelson said, weeping. “Anything I can do to help the young lady . . . . I will do.”

But the father denounced the sobbing ex-coach, saying, “This is not a remorseful man, this is a scared man.”

The victim, who had been a basketball player and began attending the school last September, has withdrawn from the high school and will not return this school year, her father said outside court. The victim, who is now 17 years old, is receiving home schooling.