|
|
|
Uploaded: Friday, March 22, 2013, 1:52 PM
Updated: Friday, March 22, 2013, 5:42 PM
Former Paly baseball coach arrested for child molestation
Contra Costa County DA files charges against man who coached baseball at Palo Alto High School, other Bay Area schools
|
Photo
 | Joel Kaufman, a former Palo Alto High School coach accused of child molestation, surrendered himself to Contra Costa sheriffs today, March 22.
Kaufman, 52, of Orinda, who has been a baseball coach in the Bay Area was employed at Palo Alto High School in 2006.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office filed six felony and misdemeanor charges Wednesday against Kaufman, the sheriff's office said. The charges include two counts of performing lewd acts on a child under 14, and one count each of performing lewd acts on a teenager between 14 and 15 and penetration of a drugged or intoxicated person, Deputy District Attorney Chad Mahalich said.
His bail was set at $325,000, Mahalich said.
Kaufman also faces misdemeanor charges of child molestation and unlawfully filming or videotaping someone, Mahalich said.
He was arrested on molestation charges last August but was later released, sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
Mahalich said that if found guilty of all charges, Kaufman could face more than 10 years in prison.
The news of Kaufman's misdeeds caught current Palo Alto High coaches and administrators off guard, but some weren't necessarily shocked by the charges.
"When I heard about it, I wasn't surprised," said current Paly baseball coach Erick Raich. "I just hope he doesn't give a bad name to all the good people out there doing club sports . . . it's really sad, but what can we do about it now? All we can do as coaches is keep our integrity, do the things under our control, and let the justice system take care of its job."
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Oakland said Kaufman was a part-time baseball coach at Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School from 1999 to 2005. During his tenure there, no incidents of abuse were reported, spokesman Mike Brown said.
For the 2006 baseball season, Kaufman worked at Palo Alto High School as a baseball coach, Palo Alto Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Scott Bowers said. No problems were reported during that time, he said.
Palo Alto Athletic Director Earl Hansen hired Kaufman to a one-year contract prior to the start of the 2006 season.
"I called O'Dowd and talked to their AD," Hansen said. "His credentials checked out. He had coached there for 11 years."
Hansen was looking for that kind of stability for his program, but found it odd that Kaufman was let go by O'Dowd after a highly successful season.
"There was no indication of wrong-doing, not at all," Hansen said. "I had no inkling about that."
Nor did Paly assistant coaches Rob McGregor or David Jefferson during the '06 season.
"I just thought he wasn't a very good coach," Hansen said. "The assistants were doing all the work. But, there was no impropriety, nothing like that."
Hansen said Kaufman wasn't fired from Paly, just not re-hired.
"If he had been here five years, it would have been an issue (based on Kaufman's current situation), but he was just here one year. . . . I really didn't know the guy very well."
The one strange thing that Hansen found about Kaufman was that he apparently couldn't play baseball, even though Kaufman led the Vikings to the postseason in his one and only year.
Dick Held, who was Paly's pitching coach during Kaufman's brief stay, said he never saw Kaufman do anything that caused him any kind of discomfort.
"I did have a confrontation with Joel about how he was unnecessarily disrespectful to team members and he told me if I didn`t like it I could leave. I did. I sent the team an e-mail saying Joel was the coach and not a bad guy, we just didn`t agree on how to best work with young people. I encouraged them to stick together and help him become a better communicator and coach.
"The team summoned him to a meeting the next day and told him he was the problem. He called and asked me to come back. I said I would think about it but was inclined to say 'no.' My wife and daughter told me the boys had gone to bat for me and I had to let them see they could have an impact when they constructively stood up to adults. I went back. Joel was very apolgetic and he changed his approach to the kids. I never saw Joel do anything inappropriate beyond his style of coaching."
Meanwhile, Raich said the entire Kaufman incident now sheds a bad light on club sports.
"It will change the policies with club programs," he said. "When it comes to traveling, you can never leave a coach alone with an athlete."
Kaufman is listed as the owner of the San Leandro batting cages Triple Play USA on Adams Avenue and as the manager of the California Smoke, a Bay Area-based baseball club for high school students.
— Bay City News/Palo Alto Online Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
|
|
| Comments
|
Posted by Sandy, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 3:14 pm This is a sad event but it is not the first time that this type of thing has happened in Palo Alto. There was an incident at Jordan Middle School with a very popular teacher "Mr. G". Fortunately he got caught and went to prison. And Mr. G lived in Palo Alto. So it doesn't matter if they are a resident here or are a commuter to the various schools - this happens. And of course this has been on the news, in other papers. I think we have beaten the dead horse enough.
|
|
Posted by Chris, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 3:49 pm Sandy-
Child rape is a horse that can never beaten enough. Palo Alto and it's poisonous parental culture not only does little to prevent molestation (not to mention suicide-which apparently is never the single track "achievement" conscience parents fault), but it ignores it even when it is obviously occurring. Said Mr. G (it's pretty gross that many still use a fond nickname for a child rapist) may have been caught and convicted, but really, the "man" went to prison for five years and now lives elsewhere. Even more the man raped children for decades under the watchful gaze of this school district. This horse, as I said, can never be beaten enough. [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by Sandy, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 4:24 pm Chris -
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.] I was very aware of the situation with Mr. Giordano. In fact he lives in the Bay Area and I saw him at the market and felt sick to my stomach. I was upset with the school officials that platently lied about his involvement and turned their backs on the situation. These are sick individuals, but blame the courts - the laws are not strict enough with them. Another instance would be the priests in the Catholic church which is another can of worms. [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by Sam, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 4:25 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by Chris, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 4:41 pm [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.] Lets get one thing clear: blaming the courts is at best unhelpful and at worst very harmful. A trinity of parents, teachers and this community's culture is wholly at fault. The courts can only prosecute these people, the teachers and parents who turn a blind eye- whether conscious or subconsciously are as far as I am concerned no better than the rapist.
|
|
Posted by Monsieur l'Enfer, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 6:59 pm Being gay does not make a person a child molester. The majority of pedophiles are heterosexual, and some are bisexual. The disease is not homosexuality, but pedophilia!
Personally, short of castration, I do not think there is a cure for pedophilia ( keep in mind there are a few female pedophiles, also). I do not believe that it is EVER safe for the public to release a pedophile from prison, and for lack of a cure, that means life imprisonment, castration, or death for the pedophile. But with our corrupt government, those solutions are probably not viable.
|
|
Posted by Paly Alum, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Mar 22, 2013 at 7:03 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by Sam, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 22, 2013 at 8:02 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by village fool, a resident of another community, on Mar 22, 2013 at 11:06 pm @Sandy - you are not the first to mention that school officials in Jordan turned their back on the situation - knew and did nothing. As far as I recall - also the victim said that years after.
Sadly, that falls perfectly in place with the latest OCR findings, with any bullying situation, with Penn State etc. By-standing.
I'm reminded of the parent who said in the open forum after the OCR findings were published - There is no need to have legal education to identify bullying. A heart should be suffice (I do not recall the exact words). Same applies to the action called for- no real need for procedures etc. Avoiding by-standing should do the work. For the most part. What caused the school officials to turn their back?
|
|
Posted by boscoli, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 23, 2013 at 6:26 am Pedophilia by coaches is more common in school sports than most people realize. For those who are badly misinformed:most pedophiles are not gay and they are often married.
It seems like the same type of school officials and parents who turn their back on bullied students and claim that bullying isn't a problem and no established federal guidelines need be followed, are the ones who also bury their heads in the sand vis-a-vis the sexual misconduct of some school sport coaches.
|
|
Posted by former Paly soccer parent, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 23, 2013 at 7:30 am Let's not forget that Jeff van Gastel, once prominent in the local club soccer world and Paly girls soccer coach for six years (and a frequent substitute teacher for PAUSD), was arrested in 2005 after hosting a wild party for some of his players that involved serving alcohol to four 18-year old girls, and having sex with three of them.
See story: Web Link
Also: Web Link
|
|
Posted by PAUSD Victims, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Mar 23, 2013 at 7:49 am I wouldn't be surprised if victims from PAUSD surface, but I also know that this is a very hard thing to do. It requires a lot of courage and be able to put up with a lot of beaten by those who do want to deny it happened.
|
|
Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Mar 23, 2013 at 2:33 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by PA Native, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Mar 23, 2013 at 5:36 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by village fool, a resident of another community, on Mar 23, 2013 at 10:33 pm @hmmm - and turning the back to situations/by-standing/ignoring.
|
|
Posted by What they did, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Mar 24, 2013 at 12:31 pm What pedophiles do to children is unforgivable. They should not be forgiven. They kill souls, a form of murder. The sentences they receive now is a joke. Let them get life in prison. No parole.
|
|
Posted by Sam, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 24, 2013 at 2:09 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
|
|
Posted by Not an issue, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Mar 24, 2013 at 2:19 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff due to deletion of referenced post.]
|
|
Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Mar 24, 2013 at 4:22 pm So, apparently, Palo Alto can't handle the truth: They're very good at hiring child molesters. This was the case when I was in school there & it's still the case. Don't hate on me - hate on the predators & the morons who hire them. This problem hasn't cropped up in surrounding cities, either because it's not happening or because they haven't been caught. Which is it?
Village Fool - "@hmmm - and turning the back to situations/by-standing/ignoring." Exactly. It's not that people can't be fooled - that's often the case. But we can't INVITE being fooled by our own unawareness.
|
|
Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Mar 24, 2013 at 5:06 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff due to deletion of referenced post.]
|
|
Posted by village fool, a resident of another community, on Mar 24, 2013 at 9:02 pm
village fool is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online @Hmmm - Hello!! Nice to meet you, again. Did you "dare" to mention the imperfection of Palo alto? How could you? especially when you are listed to be residing in EPA. I think I know what was removed.
This thread is a result of news, extremely disturbing news. I'm sure that first "thing" anyone who read this, anyone who knew a child who played this sport did - calculate - could the child, loved one, have been hurt?
All this is not disconnected from the Jordan molestation mentioned above, and others. Sometimes - bad teachers/staff/situations present themselves. That happens. The question is - What then?
|
|
|
To comment on this topic, please login here if you are a registered member. If not, click here. | |
Best Website
First Place
2009-2012
|
Send this story
Print this story
