Crime & Safety

Swim Coach: Another 16-Months for Sex Crimes With Minor

The second conviction of Todd Sousa, who relocated to Las Flores, gets him 16 months.

By City News Service

A one-time Laguna Hills swimming coach who has already served time behind bars for having sex with one of his 15-year-old students was sentenced Friday to another 16 months in prison for molesting another teenage girl.

Todd Robert Sousa, who co-owned Swim Venture Inc. of Laguna Hills with his wife, pleaded guilty in June to six counts of lewd acts on a child age 14 or 15 and one count of unlawful sex, all felonies, for assaulting the second 15-year-old girl in September 2009.

The sentence handed down by Orange County Superior Court Judge Andre Manssourian was less than the three-year cap the judge agreed to when Sousa pleaded guilty.

Manssourian acknowledged that Sousa, who relocated to Las Flores, participated in rehabilitation programs during his first stint in prison. The judge also noted that Sousa's family—including his father-in-law, former Laguna Hills Mayor Joel Lautenschleger, his wife and his father—were in court today to support the defendant.

The judge told Sousa that his crimes were  "very predatory" and angrily recalled how Sousa had the parents of two girls drop them off at Disneyland before the defendant and victims went to a motel to have sex.

"Think of the irony of that," Manssourian said. "And then to greet them with sex toys?"

The judge also noted the "irony" that the parents had been paying Sousa as the swim coach for the girls.

"They are literally paying you for what you did to them," Manssourian said, adding the "violation of trust" was a "major factor" in the punishment.

On Oct. 28, 2011, Sousa pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting another 15-year-old girl. In that plea deal, he admitted 13 counts of lewd acts on a child and three counts of unlawful sex—all felonies—and two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

In that case, Sousa picked up a 15-year-old girl and her friend from the Irvine Spectrum and drove them to his office, where he gave both teenagers alcohol and then had sex with one of the girls in another room while her friend waited.

Sousa accepted the 2011 plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald and served a portion of a 16-month sentence. He was released from prison July 1 of last year.

Sousa was arrested the following month, when the other 15-year-old swimming school student told investigators she had sex with him at a hotel near Disneyland in September 2009, where the two agreed to meet, according to Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker. Sousa also faced new allegations regarding the first 15-year-old girl he did time in prison for sexually assaulting, Walker said.

The new allegations came to light in a diary kept by one of the victims in a diary on a family computer, Walker said.

The first victim's mother and father told the judge how they and their daughter continue to struggle with the consequences. She said Sousa "groomed my daughter for sex" and called him "a low-life chameleon" who "carries a Bible and hides behind religion with all his unthinkable sins." 

At one point, the mother had to stop reading her prepared statement to the judge because she could not see through her tears.

"How do you pick up the pieces when someone you know and respected sexually assaults your daughter?," the mother said. "Todd Sousa is a very good liar and manipulator."

She said her daughter's "innocence has been stolen, replaced by anxiety. My daughter has shut down and has stopped seeing her therapist. She has not come to terms with what happened."

The mother said she tried to take medication for her own depression over the incident, but the side effects were worse, and she suffers from panic attacks, headaches, stomach aches, sleeplessness and anxiety.

The victim's father said he has been a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy for 13 years and his biggest regret is failing to spot the signs of his daughter's abuse.

"I've supervised and arrested hundreds of Todd Sousas," he said, adding he doubts the defendant's claims that he has been rehabilitated.

"Mr. Sousa is a child molester and a monster," he said. "He tries to make others remorseful for his own sick, twisted actions ... I will never forgive myself for not seeing the signs and preventing this from happening to my daughter."

After the hearing, the father said the three girls had been friends since the age of about 5, but no longer speak to each other.

The family of the victim wished to thank deputy district attorney Jennifer Walker, the Orange County Sheriff's Department, and Crime Survivors Inc., 
"for their expertise, guidance and support. ... Our family has a life sentence of dealing with the aftermath of this sexual abuse. Healing will take time."

She also told Patch while she is comforted Sousa is returning to prison, with the short sentence and likelihood of an early release, that justice was not fully served. 

According to Swim Venture's website at the time of Sousa's arrest, Sousa taught at pools across South Orange County, including in Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch and Dana Point.

In April of 2011 Sousa was placed on the USA Swimming banned list. 

—Martin Henderson contributed to this report


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