Kevin Thomas
Former Birmingham High School coach convicted of molesting teenage girls in his after-school basketball program was sentenced to six years in prison Friday.
Kevin Lamont Thomas, 40, took a plea deal with prosecutors that cut his number of charges from 14 felonies and three misdemeanors - carrying a potential sentence of more than 30 years - to two felonies and a misdemeanor.
The sentencing in Van Nuys Superior Court followed a months-long investigation that uncovered seven victims, though charges relating to two of the girls were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.
In Thomas' car, police found videotapes of the coach molesting two of the girls during what he told them were "athletic massages," said Los Angeles police Detective Dennis Derr, the lead investigator on the case.
Derr also discovered that Thomas took one girl to a local hotel for a weekend and had sex with her just days before his arrest in June.
The girls, all in their teens, attended school in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys and knew Thomas through his private Sports Challenge basketball clinic, which he often held after school on public school campuses. He gained the trust of the girls and their families by saying he had connections and could get them scholarships to universities.
http://www.teachercrime.com/california.html
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