Ex-Coach Faces 4 Sex Charges

A former basketball coach at Ribet Academy faces felony charges for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl on his team.

Paul Calvin Clark III, 34, of Duarte has pleaded not guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and one count of oral copulation. He was released from custody on $105,000 bond after his July arrest and no longer works at Ribet, a private school near the Glendale Freeway in Glassell Park.

The charges against Clark stem from incidents alleged to have occurred in January and February and carry a maximum penalty of six years and eight months in state prison, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Christina Weiss said.

Clark, who appeared Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Monrovia, “completely maintains his innocence,” said his attorney, Robert M. Bernstein.

“He was nothing more than a dedicated teacher and a friend to the student, as well as her family,” Bernstein said.

But according to Weiss and the case’s lead investigator, the girl said she and Clark had sex three times over six months--in his office at Ribet and at Clark’s house. Additionally, they say, two of Clark’s former students, now adults, have said they also had intercourse with Clark when they were underage.

One of the women accused Clark of forcible rape in 1996 and he was arrested, but charges were never filed.

Clark also was investigated for allegedly sending the other woman lewd letters, but no charges appear to have been filed in that instance either. Later, he was charged with prowling outside her house, but that case was dismissed after Clark attended therapy sessions that addressed “age-specific dating.”

“This investigation shows a pattern of predatory sexual behavior toward three young female students at three different schools where the defendant taught and coached over a seven-year period,” Weiss said. The statute of limitations lapsed on the two older cases, she said.

At Ribet, two coaches who worked with Clark wrote that they saw several occasions when Clark and the girl touched or acted in a way that seemed inappropriate. Investigators have those memos, but it is unclear when they were given to school administrators.

Ribet’s chief administrator and one of its owners, Ronald Sires, said the school’s principal and vice principal looked into the other coaches’ reports in January and admonished Clark for inappropriate behavior.

“I had spoken to Paul on two occasions, directly, telling him the appearance of anything wrong is career-ending,” Principal Robert Newton said. “It doesn’t have to be true. The mere mention of it means you’re done, finished.”

Until July, when the girl’s parents reported Clark to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Sires said, “there were no problems.”

“I felt it was investigated properly,” he said.

A state Department of Justice background check done sometime after Clark was hired full time in 2000 stated that he had no criminal history, Newton said. Calls to one of Clark’s past employers also turned up nothing alarming, the principal added.

According to someone who has seen Clark’s job application, Clark did not list the two employers--Westminster High School and Immaculate Conception School in Monrovia--whose former students now allege they had sex with him.

At Ribet, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. Albert Maldonado said the girl told several of her friends about the alleged relationship. The girl is now 16 and attending another school.

Bernstein, Clark’s attorney, characterized those conversations as nothing more than schoolgirls’ gossip.

“This is a young lady who had some sort of infatuation with Mr. Clark and spread some rumors,” he said.

Weiss, the prosecutor, countered: “The current victim is very credible and her allegations are supported by other witnesses and other evidence.”