Football Coach Arrested in Molestation of Youths

A high school teacher and football coach has been accused of sexual assault by two teenage boys, Azusa police said Friday.

Roberto Paul Regalado, 28, of Azusa was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of sexual battery against a 17-year-old boy, police said. He was freed Friday after posting $250,000 bail.

He had been arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of molesting another 17-year-old, and was freed after posting bail in that case.

Regalado teaches auto shop at Gladstone High School in Covina and is a volunteer football coach at Baldwin Park High School.

According to police, the first teenager came forward Tuesday and told them he had been sexually assaulted a number of times during the last three years.

The teenager alleged that Regalado, a family friend, used physical violence and threatened him with a firearm, police said. The alleged incidents occurred at the teacher’s Azusa home, a Baldwin Park apartment and the house of Regalado’s mother, police said. “The 17-year-old said he decided to report what was happening because he is tired of being scared,” Police Lt. Jeff Reed said.

Regalado was arrested Tuesday and released after posting $75,000 bail, Reed said.

On Thursday, a second boy told detectives that he had been sexually assaulted by Regalado multiple times over an eight-month period at the teacher’s home, police said. The two met in 1996 at Azusa High School, while Regalado was a football coach there. Regalado was then arrested again.

Prosecutors will make a decision on whether to charge him before an Aug. 7 court hearing, officials said. Regalado could not be reached for comment.

Officials from the Azusa Unified School District, which includes Azusa High and Gladstone High, said they are cooperating with the police probe.

Meanwhile, in a Pasadena case, a judge has decided that John Muir High School track coach Clyde Ezra Turner should stand trial on three felony charges of child molestation and a misdemeanor count.

The decision came Thursday after a preliminary hearing in which two boys testified that Turner molested them.

Turner has pleaded not guilty. He will be arraigned in Superior Court later this month.