CORONA DEL MAR : Amended Charges Filed as Coach’s Pay Stops

Prosecutors filed an amended complaint Thursday against suspended Corona del Mar football Coach Mark Aubrey Schuster, alleging he had unlawful sex with his adopted teen-age daughter at least once a month since the pair moved to Orange County in June, 1994.

The felony complaint charges the 48-year-old Schuster with 16 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse--one count per month from June, 1994, to Sept. 11--and one count of oral copulation with a minor.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Claudia Silbar called her filing “conservative.” The victim, who turned 18 this month, said the sex had recently escalated to once or twice a week, Silbar said.

Police and prosecutors say Schuster demanded sex as “payments” for gifts he gave to his stepdaughter, whom he legally adopted when she was 8, or as punishment for bad grades.

Also Thursday, Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials announced they will revoke Schuster’s pay beginning today.

Schuster was suspended after his arrest, but district officials waited for the amended complaint to revoke his pay. Schuster is now on a mandatory leave of absence and has a right to request a district hearing.

The Education Code specifies that any school employee charged with a sex crime be suspended without pay, Supt. Mac Bernd said. He said the district has forwarded a copy of the felony complaint to the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

“We’ve taken this step in accordance with the Education Code and our duty to address matters of this nature,” he said.

Silbar had previously filed a 16-count complaint against Schuster, dating back to 1989, when the victim was 12.

According to Silbar and police documents filed requesting a search warrant of Schuster’s Balboa Island home, the molestation began in 1989 with inappropriate touching and escalated to intercourse in 1992, when Schuster’s then-14-year-old stepdaughter joined him on a trip to Hawaii.

Silbar amended the complaint to charge Schuster only with crimes that allegedly occurred in Orange County.