Coach Gets 12 Years in Molestation Case

A softball coach and former USC public safety officer was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday for committing lewd acts with a child under the age of 14.

Edward Clyde Dobbins, 37, who was a sworn officer on the USC campus, pleaded no contest last month to committing lewd acts with two girls and his daughter, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim Santini said.

He initially was charged with 16 counts of lewd acts involving his 6- and 14-year-old daughters and four of his older daughter’s friends who played on a softball team he coached. The acts occurred in 1995 during a sleepover at Dobbins’ home, Santini said.

Dobbins was arrested in August and resigned from USC after working there nearly a decade.