Former Coach Denies Affair With Student

Denying charges that he carried on an affair with a 16-year-old student, a former Simi Valley High School track coach pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 10 felony counts of having sex with a minor.

Robert America, 22, denied charges that he had sex on several occasions with a member of his team--a series of alleged liaisons that prosecutors say could land him in state prison for up to six years if he is convicted.

America said little at Tuesday’s Superior Court arraignment, where his trial was scheduled for Aug. 27.

But in an interview after the hearing, America said that while he dated the girl briefly until a year and a half ago, he never had sex with her.

“The allegations are false,” he said. “She is lying. . . . I don’t think she has any idea of how bad she could ruin somebody’s life with false allegations.”

America insisted that the girl fabricated all her accounts of having consensual sex with him, including what she told Simi Valley police and wrote in detailed entries in her diary.

“If you were to read it, you’d find it’s pretty remarkable,” he said. “The diary is false. I have a copy of it, and I haven’t read the entire thing, but the entries that have to do with sexual intercourse, that’s not true.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Adam Pearlman has said there is evidence that America had sex with the girl on at least nine days--in a car, at her parents’ house and in an athletic equipment locker at the school.

“It’s a serious case because of the position of trust that he held to the victim,” Pearlman said. “He was directly responsible for her.”