L.A. school athletic trainer pleads to sexual assault of 12 girls

A former high school sports coach accused of sexually assaulting a dozen teenage girls was sentenced Monday to 36 years in prison after pleading no contest to criminal charges, officials said.

Richard Alexander Turner, 65, pleaded guilty during a preliminary hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial, according to court records. He pleaded no contest to 13 counts of sexual assault involving 12 girls, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

“He will now face the harsh reality of likely spending the rest of his days in prison,” prosecutors said in a statement.

Turner faced 21 criminal charges stemming from interactions with students he worked with from 2017 to 2022 at high schools in the San Fernando Valley, according to court records. On Monday, he pleaded no contest to one count of forcible rape, three counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious victim due to fraud or misrepresentation, four counts of sexual penetration by object stranger and five counts of sexual battery involving an unconscious person.

The plea saves Turner’s victims — who were ages 15 to 17 at the time of the assaults, prosecutors said — from “the traumatic experience of testifying at trial,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Turner’s September 2022 arrest came after a Birmingham Community Charter High School cheerleader accused him of touching her inappropriately.

Similar allegations had been made against Turner five years earlier. In 2017, a Van Nuys High School student told authorities that Turner touched her inappropriately. A police report was filed, but Los Angeles police cited a lack of evidence in the case, and no arrests were made or charges filed.

Turner was working as an independent contractor at the time. Los Angeles Unified School District officials said his contract was terminated six weeks after he started working at Van Nuys High School after a student alleged “misconduct.”

After the Birmingham allegation, police linked Turner’s name to the previous sexual assault report. Eventually, other accusers from the charter school and Van Nuys High came forward.

After the first charges against Turner were announced, two more victims spoke to authorities. All were attacked while receiving treatment for sports injuries, prosecutors said.

Some victims reported that Turner became violent during the assaults, while others did not realize at the time that they had been sexually assaulted, said LA County Dist. Atty. » said George Gascón.

“It is distressing for the victims, their families and all of us that in our educational systems someone is taking advantage of our youth,” Gascón said at the time Turner was charged.

On Monday, he applauded the students who had the courage to speak out.

“The 12 victims came together to ensure that the accused could no longer abuse his position of trust and harm anyone,” Gascón’s statement said.