High School Football Coach Arrested in Sex Case : Crime: Popular teacher in Newport Beach is accused of molesting his stepdaughter, now 18, for six years.

The head football coach at Corona Del Mar High School was suspended with pay Wednesday as police revealed they had confiscated sexually explicit photographs from his home showing the 18-year-old stepdaughter he is accused of molesting.

Mark Aubrey Schuster, 48, was arrested late Tuesday and charged with 16 felony counts of lewd acts against the girl dating back six years, after she helped police tape conversations with him in his high school office.

In the taped conversations, Schuster allegedly acknowledged a relationship with his stepdaughter in which he demanded sexual favors as “payments” for gifts or as punishment for bad grades, police said.

Schuster, who could not be reached for comment, was released on bail early Wednesday. His arraignment has been set for Nov. 2, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Claudia Silbar.

Silbar said the alleged abuse began with inappropriate touching in 1989, when the victim was 12, and escalated to statutory rape and oral copulation. The sex acts occurred as often as once or twice a week. The most recent incident allegedly occurred Sept. 11.

Silbar said she planned to amend her complaint this week to reflect only allegations of abuse that occurred after the pair moved to Orange County in May, 1994. Previous incidents allegedly took place in Diamond Bar, where Schuster and his stepdaughter previously lived, and at other locations in the Los Angeles area.

Schuster has coached the Corona Del Mar Sea Kings since the fall of 1994 and spent the previous 22 years as a science teacher and coach at Azusa High School.

Most coaches and teachers at Corona Del Mar and Azusa refused to comment on the arrest Wednesday, but Newport Mesa Unified School District Supt. Mac Bernd said the district was cooperating fully with police, conducting an internal investigation and offering counseling to any students who might need it.

“My first reaction was complete disbelief,” said Bernd, who learned of the charges in a meeting Tuesday with the Newport Beach police chief. “When you’re in education, you are immediately and strongly concerned when anything like this surfaces. Obviously you have a situation where he was respected and supported by a number of people in the community.”

The victim told police that she waited until her 18th birthday to report the abuse because she feared having to continue living with Schuster after contacting authorities. She confided in her 21-year-old boyfriend Sunday, who immediately took her to stay with her uncle in the San Gabriel Valley. The uncle contacted Newport Beach police Sunday night and arranged to bring her to the station Monday, according to police and the boyfriend.

“She’s doing really good,” the boyfriend said Wednesday as he and some friends hastily gathered the woman’s belongings from the small, red-brick duplex on Balboa Island that she shared with Schuster, and packed it into two pickup trucks. “The family is supporting her, and she’s never going to come back here again.”

Schuster and his stepdaughter both used the term payments while discussing the sex acts in two separate conversations that were recorded by Newport Beach detectives, said Police Sgt. Andy Gonis. Monday’s conversation occurred on the telephone, he said. For an in-person conversation Tuesday, police outfitted the stepdaughter with a tape recorder, Gonis said.

Gonis said Wednesday that the taped conversations corroborated her allegations of abuse. “There was discussion about ‘payments,’ ” Gonis said.

“The victim appears to be a very mature, articulate young lady,” Silbar said. “However, the tapes serve as substantial corroboration of her statements.”

Gonis said police served a search warrant Tuesday and seized photographs showing the victim topless and in a G-string. Investigators declined to elaborate on other evidence seized in searches of Schuster’s home, car and office.

News of Schuster’s arrest buzzed through Corona Del Mar High Wednesday, provoking a wide range of reaction. Many students supported Schuster, saying he was a strong sports figure at the school. But a number of parents were outraged.

Many students said Schuster was a well-liked coach and teacher who shared personal experiences in his class.

“He always talked about Vietnam stories, fighting in the rice paddies,” said Ryan Tucker, a freshman who had Schuster last year for his eight-grade health class at the school, which includes grades 7-12. “He was cool and easy to talk to.”

The victim is the daughter of Debra Lee Schuster, whom Schuster married in late 1981. They separated 11 years later, and the victim chose to live with Schuster, according to police.

Police said the young woman did not want to live with her mother, but the girl’s boyfriend said Wednesday that she did not want to be a burden to her mother, who was unemployed and barely able to make ends meet.