Former Coach Guilty of Sex With Daughter

Capping an emotional family tragedy, a jury Wednesday convicted a popular former Corona del Mar High School football coach of having sex with his teenage adopted daughter as “payments” for poor grades or merchandise he bought.

Mark Aubrey Schuster, 49, shook his head and wiped away tears as he was pronounced guilty of 16 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and a single charge of oral copulation with a minor. Schuster, a teacher and head football coach at Corona del Mar until his arrest last year, faces up to six years in prison.

One juror wept uncontrollably as verdicts were read. The decision let loose a burst of emotion elsewhere in the courtroom, where Schuster’s relatives had broken into opposing camps across an icy divide.

One of Schuster’s supporters ran distraught from the courtroom, making the sign of the cross. The adopted daughter, now 19 and married, clasped her husband’s hand and held her eyes closed. She looked away as the bailiff placed handcuffs on Schuster. On the other side of the courtroom, her half-sister, who testified on Schuster’s defense, wailed.

“It’s an emotional case . . . even the jurors were crying,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Claudia Silbar said. “And the division between the families is obvious. It’s just one of those cases where you don’t feel good even at the end. But we’re pleased they’re guilty verdicts.”

Schuster’s attorney, who had accused the victim of making up the allegations, said the charged emotions stacked the odds against his client.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed in the verdict. Mr. Schuster still maintains that this didn’t happen,” said defense attorney William G. Watson. “Beyond that, there’s not much more I can say.” The trial lay bare the inner turmoil of an apparently happy family, pitting the word of the cheerleader daughter against that of a respected teacher and coach--and the only father she ever really knew. The case also revealed Schuster’s foibles as he was forced to admit he made up tales about Vietnam War experiences that had added to his campus popularity.

The daughter testified that Schuster--her stepfather until he adopted her when she was about age 8--began fondling her during playful wrestling matches. The daughter said the touching escalated to intercourse during a 1993 Hawaii vacation after Schuster and her mother divorced. The daughter, then 15, said she was too scared to report it.

The daughter, who lived with Schuster, said he increasingly demanded sex as “payments” for poor grades, clothing purchases and permission to go on dates--sometimes using handcuffs or a bathrobe belt to bind her. She said she kept the sex a secret because she doubted anyone would believe her.

She first made the allegations to her boyfriend last September, just after an argument with her father over buying a bigger car for her.

Schuster was arrested after police set up taped conversations with the daughter aimed at duping him into admitting guilt. During a talk in which the daughter wore a secret microphone, she told him she just discovered she had gonorrhea. Schuster wondered aloud what he would tell his new girlfriend. In a separate telephone call monitored by police, Schuster told the daughter the “payments” were over.

Police searched the Schuster home and seized handcuffs, a bathrobe belt anchored to a pipe behind the bed and two photographs of the daughter topless. Blood-typing tests on semen stains on the sheets matched them to Schuster and DNA testing of vaginal cells linked them to the daughter.

“Mr. Schuster has substituted the wife that he loved, who left him, with his stepdaughter,” Silbar told jurors during her closing argument. “She became his wife.”

With the credibility of both accuser and defendant at the heart of the case, Schuster found himself confessing he lied on his job application when he wrote that he was part of a well-known Army unit that saw combat in Vietnam. Schuster also admitted telling students and colleagues tales of his exploits in the war, even though he was a member of the National Guard and never set foot in Vietnam.

“He was good at lying about Vietnam for years. Don’t let him fool you,” Silbar said.

Schuster said the war stories were a mistake but insisted he was telling the truth in denying the daughter’s allegations. He said he heard the war tales from wounded soldiers at the military hospital where he worked and included himself in them to impress fellow coaches he said intimidated him.

Schuster’s attorney picked at weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, pointing out that much of the taped conversations was inaudible and accusing police of mishandling the biological samples.

The defense attacked the daughter as a manipulative liar and suggested she may have been the pawn of her mother, Schuster’s ex-wife. Watson asked jurors why the daughter silently endured the alleged sex for years and reported it only after a bitter argument over the new car.

“If [Schuster had] bought the automobile, would we be here?” Watson asked during his closing argument.

Schuster said he used the word “payments” with his daughter only to refer to household chores, not sex. He said the inaudible portions of the tapes omitted comments that would have provided innocent explanations for apparent admissions. He said he used the handcuffs and bathrobe tie only during sex with his girlfriends and former wife.

Schuster said his daughter told him a female friend took the semi-nude photographs as a joke. Schuster said he tried to throw the photos away but they were missing from a pile of papers that he took to a dumpster. His defense lawyer suggested that the pictures were planted in Schuster’s drawer before the police search.

Schuster is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on Oct. 25.