Ex-Redwood City Coach Gets 50 Years In Sex Assault Case

MENLO PARK, CA — A former Peninsula youth basketball coach who was caught fellating a 14-year-old boy in a parked vehicle was sentenced Friday, San Mateo County prosecutors said this week. A judge sentenced Julio Edgardo Ortiz to 50 years in state prison, barred him for 10 years from contacting his victims, ordered fines and fees be paid and ordered he register as a sex offender for life.

The Menlo Park man, who's now 37, was arrested in September 2016 after a California Highway Patrol officer found him at a lookout point along Interstate Highway 280, according to a district attorney's report.

Ortiz and the teen were in a parked car with the engine running and he was orally copulating the teen when the officer checked inside, prosecutors said. He was also found to be drunk and was arrested for DUI at the time, according to prosecutors.

"The defendant is a former Redwood City elementary school basketball coach who met [the] victim when he coached him two years earlier," the DA's report stated.

Upon Ortiz's arrest, four more victims eventually came forward, including a woman who was assaulted when she brought her child to school for a parent-teacher conference, according to prosectors.

Last month, after five days of a jury trial, Ortiz pleaded no contest to continuous sexual molestation, lewd acts on a child by force or fear, lewd acts on a child 10 years younger than the defendant, lewd acts on a child under 14, contacting a minor to request child pornography, and digital sexual penetration of an adult woman by force or fear.

He received the 50-year sentence Friday from San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Karesh, with 1,031 days credit for time served. He had been in custody on $4 million bail.

Defense attorney Monica Toole said prosecutors sought a life sentence for Ortiz but ultimately agreed to the defense offer of the 50-year sentence.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report / Photo courtesy of the San Mateo Sheriff's Office