L.A. Unified after-school coach is suspected of molesting nine girls

A coach for a Los Angeles Unified School District after-school program was charged Friday with multiple felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Ronnie Lee Roman, 42, of San Fernando, worked as a Youth Services coach for Beyond the Bell, an after-school program offered in some elementary and middle schools, said Det. Joe Rios, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. He was arrested Wednesday.

Roman is accused of inappropriately touching seven girls at Cahuenga Elementary School in Koreatown between January 2012 and September 2014, the district attorney’s office said.

Roman also allegedly molested two girls at Vine Elementary School in Hollywood between August 2001 and July 2002, prosecutors said.

All of the students were between the ages of 7 and 11, according to the district attorney’s office.

The LAPD’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit began investigating Roman in September after a female student reported that Roman had inappropriately touched her on several occasions, police said.

Roman’s bail was set at $1.7 million, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s online inmate information. He has been charged with nine felony counts of lewd acts on a child, prosecutors said.

If convicted as charged, Roman faces up to 135 years years to life in state prison, the district attorney’s office said.

Roman remains under investigation by police, who have asked anyone with information about the case to contact detectives at (213) 486-0580.

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