Ex-Coach Draws Prison Term

Carefully avoiding eye contact with the adopted daughter who accused him, a popular former Corona del Mar High School football coach was sentenced on Friday to five years and eight months in state prison for having sex with the teenager as “payments” for poor grades, clothing purchases and permission to go out on dates.

Mark Aubrey Schuster, 49, received close to the maximum possible sentence of six years. Schuster was convicted earlier this month of 16 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and a single charge of oral copulation with a minor.

In stern comments before handing down the sentence, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard M. Aronson said he had “no doubt” that the jury had delivered a just verdict. The judge said Schuster’s “self-gratification robbed this child of her innocence and her trust. That was despicable.

“The evidence was compelling and extremely convincing,” Aronson added. “What I just cannot get over is the long-term, protracted nature of this conduct.”

Schuster’s attorney, William G. Watson, had asked the judge for a two-year sentence, citing his client’s previous clean record and devotion to his job and to his students.

“In essence, Mr. Schuster has already given himself a life term,” Watson said. “He’s lost his career.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Claudia Silbar argued forcefully for the maximum six-year sentence.

“When it comes down to it, this is a horrendous crime,” said Silbar. “He has divided two families and affected a young woman for the rest of her life.”

The sentencing capped an emotional family tragedy that continued to play out in court Friday, with divided family members sitting on opposite sides of the courtroom, many in tears throughout the tense morning.

The adopted daughter, now 19, sat calmly with her mother, grandparents and other relatives in the back row of the courtroom. She had testified that Schuster--her stepfather until he adopted her when she was about 8--began fondling her during playful wrestling matches. The daughter said the touching escalated into intercourse during a Hawaiian vacation in 1993 after Schuster and her mother had divorced.

As she waited for the judge to take the bench Friday, the daughter turned to her mother and said: “He’s the only other person who knew what happened and you know what? He’ll never admit it.”

Schuster’s supporters, including his natural daughter, mother and sister, sobbed when he was sentenced and later defended him outside court.

“He went to trial because he didn’t do it,” said his mother, LuJean Schuster Dimitri. “Mark is not guilty.”

Schuster’s sister, Candy Uhlir, said through tears that the adopted daughter had made up the stories and was urged to do so by her mother.

“Innocent people go to jail,” Uhlir said. “Twelve jurors aren’t always perfect. From the very beginning, this whole thing was one-sided.”

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After the hearing, an angry Dimitri confronted Deputy Dist. Atty. Silbar in a hallway.

“You lied so much in court, it was sickening,” the mother said to the stunned prosecutor.

Silbar had urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence mainly because Schuster refused to admit to any crimes.

“If he was man enough to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ I might be asking for a lower term,” Silbar said. “He can’t be rehabilitated if he can’t admit it. Even as he sits here today, he is in deep denial.”

The credibility of both accuser and defendant was at the heart of the case. During the investigation Schuster confessed that he had lied about being a part of a well-known Army unit that saw combat in Vietnam. Schuster, a member of the National Guard who never served in Vietnam, also admitted to lying to students and colleagues about exploits in the war.

The prosecution pointed to these lies as an indicator that Schuster was also lying in his denial of the molestations. The defense said it was the daughter who was a manipulative liar and suggested she may have been a pawn of her mother, Schuster’s ex-wife.

But on Friday, the judge said he did not believe the allegations were “orchestrated by a vindictive ex-wife or devious teenager.”

During the trial, the daughter said Schuster 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 that anyone would believe her. She first made the allegations to a boyfriend last September just after arguing with her father over buying a new car for her.

Schuster was arrested after police set up taped conversations with the daughter aimed at duping him into admitting guilt. While wearing a secret microphone during one talk, the daughter told Schuster she had just discovered that 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 that the “payments” were over.

During a search of the Schuster home, police 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.

The daughter, who was recently married, declined to make any comment about the sentence on Friday.