Volunteer Coach Held in Sex Case

A volunteer wrestling coach at Moorpark High School has been arrested on suspicion of committing sex acts with a 14-year-old female student at the school.

Andrew Paul Fonseca, 23, of Moorpark remained in Ventura County Jail on Friday in lieu of $75,000 bail, authorities said. He is being held on suspicion of annoying and molesting a child under 18, having sex with a minor and two other allegations.

Fonseca is the second Ventura County high school coach in less than a month to be accused of having sex with a minor student.

Chad Wenzlick Pridgen, a 30-year-old science teacher and soccer and tennis coach at Adolfo Camarillo High School, pleaded not guilty last week to 33 counts of sex crimes involving nine students.

Fonseca, an unpaid “walk-on” coach during the wrestling season that ended earlier this month, was arrested Thursday after high school officials notified the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department of the allegations.

“We got a report of an adult having a relationship with a student,” sheriff’s spokesman Eric Nishimoto said. “We investigated it and we arrested him.”

Fonseca is not an employee of the Moorpark Unified School District, Supt. Frank DePasquale said.

Still, he said, volunteer coaches work under the supervision of the school’s wrestling coach, Pedro Lozano. They are subject to background checks and fingerprinting.

“We are conducting a full investigation and will take any actions necessary,” DePasquale said.

Lozano, reached at his home, declined to comment.