Queens Soccer Coach Filmed Himself Sexually Abusing Teens: DA

WOODSIDE, QUEENS — A Queens soccer coach has been arrested on charges that he recorded himself sexually assaulting teenage boys and girls as young as 13, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Woodside resident Harrison Torres, who coached soccer at the now-defunct American Eagle Soccer Academy, stands accused of groping and sexually abusing underage teens at his home and at a Woodside high school from July 2018 to September 2019, according to the Queens district attorney's office.

Prosecutors say Torres, 23, offered to pay a 14-year-old boy to send him sexually explicit photos, then sent videos and photos of himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy.

Torres is also charged with shoving a 13-year-old boy against a wall at a Woodside high school on Nov. 7, 2018 and molesting him, prosecutors said.

Torres was at the school for an event hosted by the soccer academy, which his father ran, according to prosecutors.

"This case is every parents’ nightmare – a coach gains their trust and then betrays them in the most vile ways to feed his own sick, sexual desires," Acting Queens District Attorney John M. Ryan said.

Queens prosecutors are charging Torres with sexual abuse, attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child, criminal sexual acts, third-degree rape, possessing child porn and endangering the welfare of a child.

If convicted, Torres faces between 15 and 50 years in prison.

The Queens DA's office urges anyone who suspects their child may have been victimized by this defendant to please contact the police by calling 911 or walking into any police facility to report the abuse. Additionally, if anyone has any information regarding the abuse, they should call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers’s tip line at 800-577-TIPS.