Ex-Coach Pleads No Contest to Sex Charges Involving Girls

A former Santa Monica High School coach pleaded no contest Wednesday to nine felony counts stemming from unlawful sexual relationships with three underage girls, authorities said.

Michael Hearn, 38, pleaded to six counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with three girls under 18, one count of a lewd act on a child, one count of oral copulation on a person under 16 and one count of sending harmful material to a minor electronically.

With the plea, Hearn, who spent two years as an assistant football and basketball coach at Santa Monica High, avoids a jury trial that was scheduled to begin this week.

Sentencing before Los Angeles County Superior Judge Katherine Mader was set for Tuesday. Hearn faces a maximum of two years in state prison.

Authorities said the incidents took place between December 2003 and May 2004 with three girls -- two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old. Two were students at the school but took no classes with Hearn. All the incidents occurred off campus.

Hearn was arrested June 2, 2004, four days before another Santa Monica High School staffer was arrested on suspicion of having inappropriate sexual relations with students.

Carl Hammer, 37, an assistant band director, was accused of committing lewd acts on a 15-year-old girl. Hammer entered a plea bargain that led to five years’ probation with a choice of spending 60 days in jail or completing a one-year sex offender program.

He also registered as a sex offender, prosecutors said.