Mar Vista Coach Accused of Sex Acts With Ninth-Grade Girl: UPDATE

IMPERIAL BEACH, CA: A walk-on assistant football coach for Mar Vista High School was arrested Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of engaging in sex acts with a ninth-grade girl who attends classes at the Imperial Beach campus, according to San Diego County sheriff's officials.

Edward Aaron Mendoza, 27, was taken into custody at 2:30 p.m. at his workplace in Chula Vista, sheriff's Lt. Dan Brislin said — making it the second time in four days a man was jailed for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an underage student while working at the Elm Avenue campus.

On Saturday, a 48-year-old substitute ROTC teacher at Mar Vista, Martin Albert Gallegos, was arrested for allegedly having sex with a 12th-grade female student on multiple occasions.

The two cases appear to be unrelated, Brislin said.

The lieutenant said Mendoza's arrest Tuesday was "the result of an extensive investigation involving allegations that Mendoza was engaged in an ongoing inappropriate relationship with a female student at the school."

"This incident was reported after the victim's father learned his daughter was engaging in extensive phone conversations with Mendoza and was having an inappropriate relationship with him," Brislin said.

Sheriff's detectives allegedly discovered Mendoza had fostered an ongoing relationship with the girl, purportedly engaging in sexual activity with her at the school over a period of six months.

Child abuse detectives "developed sufficient evidence to arrest Mendoza for multiple counts of child molest," Brislin said.

Mendoza will be booked into the San Diego Central Jail.

Manny Rubio, spokesman for Sweetwater Union High School District, said Mendoza has not worked at the school since December, when the campus football season ended.

"He has been a walk-on coach at Mar Vista since 2013," Rubio said. "As of the end of the football season on 2015, this individual does not have an assignment in our district."

Rubio said district officials "immediately" contacted law enforcement when the allegations against Mendoza were first brought to their attention in late-February. Until Tuesday, they had not been contacted by the sheriff's department with a status on the case, he said.

"At the time of the original allegation, the school and the district reached out to the affected student and others who might be affected by this," Rubio said. "This is a very troubling and saddening situation. Our hearts go out to the victim and their family and we will continue doing everything we can to ensure that our students have a safe and secure environment at all of our schools."

In the case involving Gallegos, Rubio said Gallegos' employment as a substitute teacher with the district was terminated upon his arrest. The district is fully cooperating with the sheriff's investigation in that matter, as well, he said.

"...We want to make sure we are doing the right thing, so anything we can do to support the sheriff's investigation we are going to do," Rubio said.

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—City News Service and Patch Editor Maggie Avants contributed to this report

**Updated at 9:12 p.m. Pacific Time; Originally posted at 6 p.m. Pacific Time, April 12, 2016**