Harry Welch has been cleared by the Orange County District Attorney's office, which has refused to file assault charges against the football coach.
Welch, the head football coach at Santa Margarita Catholic, has been on paid administrative leave since last week while being investigated by the Orange County Sheriff.
According to sheriff spokesman Jim Amormino, the school received an anonymous third-party tip via email that a coach at the school "pushed or shoved a student athlete," which could be grounds for assault.
The victim did not file the complaint.
"Based on a thorough review of all the evidence and the law, we believe that we can't prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt and that a jury would not return a guilty verdict," said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.
She said it's not unusual for the office to not file charges, noting that the D.A. takes in 70,000-80,000 submitted cases but files charges in 65,000-70,000 of them.
Although Welch has been cleared by the D.A., the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange said Thursday that he remains on leave "pending a review by the Santa Margarita administration as well as the Diocese of Orange," according to Stephen Bohannon, the diocese spokesman.
"Our review is still ongoing," Bohannon said. "We were anticipating that it would not be a very long review but want to make sure everything is covered."
The incident that sparked the investigation allegedly took place Dec. 13, a few days after Santa Margarita won the Pac-5 championship and three days before it won the State Division I Bowl championship.
For Welch, a second-year coach at Santa Margarita, it was the third state bowl game he had won in six year with three different teams. The team went 13-2 this season and, in Welch's two years heading the program, is 22-5. In the two years prior to his arrival, it was 6-14.
I also will meet you personally if you will be man enough to come out from behind your alias. Just email me. larry larry4rsm@yahoo.com
Off topic yes and from many people. I understand your concern and that you do not know me personally.. Your daughter must be one of the three employees of pizza place where I am a customer. I hand out my cards all over RSM since this is my best way to get my name out there. I will not have the $50,000.00 that the incumbents will have from their political supporters. I handed cards to everyone at the pizza place. I have served as the Legislative and Advocacy Representative for two RSM SVUSD schools for the last six years trying to save money to support and save programs for our schools. In order to serve On PTA Boards you have to under go annual background checks. The current President for the entire SVUSD PTA said that I have served well and have been a strong voice for schools in Sacramento. My youngest son is an Honors 7th grade student at RSM Intermediate and won a medal in art from the SVUSD last year. My daughter is a Deans Honors graduate from UCSB and my oldest son is a graduate of Cal Poy-SLO where he was on their Football Team for four years. He played four years for Bellarmine College Prep which was defeated in the State Championship Game. I sat on the Eagles side. Hopefully, this will give you a better picture of myself. This will be my last response to the suspected supporters of the Old Guard incumbents. If they are for real? I have offered to meet with them two times. Thanks for your comments and your parental concerns.
In all honesty, Larry did not take this "Blog" off topic.....it kind of took a "small turn" after my first commit about his "..low life" term. Which then brought out the anti Larry crowd, and a few keyboard loud mouths, which IMO is what changed the subject tone of this ride, and took the inevitable train wreck off the tracks. Larry simply replied to those who came at him......thats how i see it. Now was that smart thing. Thats not for for me to decide, and i really don't give a rats tail. Now back to my leaky pipe and wet dry wall. Tight lines, I'm out.
I am a new subscriber to this Patch, a mother of 3 students and was somewhat apalled at the negative remarks about Larry McCook. I have known Mr. McCook since 1999 and he is a fine citizen of RSM and a strong activist for the truth. We in RSM are lucky for him to volunteer his experience and services. He is also a devote father of his 12 year old son. I might add that I am not a member of his church but, know him to be a devoted Christian. I do know the former Patch employee April Josephsen to be an ally of Carol Gamble and she has a strong outspoken political agenda. I did an Intelius research for this James Vilius who has been blogging. There is no such person in either 92688 or 92679 or is there anyone registered to vote in RSM by that name. Voter registration is a public online record. A total phony with an agenda! RSM Dad is hiding behind an alias to slander people. Does he not know that, with a court order, you can pull any and everyones computer IP address from RSM Patch and enter an action against them in court? I am surprised that the Patch allows these type comments. Some obvious supporters of city council incumbents owe Mr. McCook a big apology!
Patch removes slanderous comments. That is their policy, and I have seen them do it to other posters who they consider had crossed the line. I have said nothing about Mr. McCook that would be considered slanderous in a court of law. As an announced candidate for office, however, his comments are fair game for comment, ridicule and questioning. No different than what you see occuring now for the presidential campaign. If you are offended, I apologize to you as well, but I will continue to hold Mr. McCook accountable to anything he states as I evaluate his competency to serve on the city council.
I'm honestly surprised that if whatever happened at the city council meeting on Wednesday had this much "dissension and tirade" (as Larry McCook put it), why isn't there an article on Patch to tell the rest of us about it? I just now went to the RSM city website and looked up the agenda, but it doesn't say what actually happened. Is there somewhere where we can find out what this is all about? Anyways, I'm glad there's at least another story about Coach Welch now that we can comment on, so i'm going there, but I'm still interested in knowing what this is all about.
basically 2 sides, neither wanting to listen or admit the other might be semi correct, just want to continue bashing each other and never move forward mistakes have been made, things said that are not accurate (on both side people! you must admit) and instead of letting things go when decisions were made, folks are hanging onto s... that happened during the election, council meetings, planning commission meetings, etc. hope that helps:)) be fore warned if you disagree you might get slammed!
RSM dad
Ms. Conrad, thank you for recognizing that I support Carol Gamble. I do so for good reason. I will also support non-incumbents, should I believe they have the best interests of the city at heart and would be the best candidates for our city council in a given election. That is my only political agenda. So, I will assume your comment about owing Larry an apology does not apply to me. Also, a note to you and RSM Dad. Patch doesn't have to do anything about slanderous comments, as slander is verbal. I believe you are both referring to libel. I do think that although some comments are rather snarky in tone, none qualify as libelous. For the benefit of Stamper and any other members of the public interested, as referred to by Ms. Thompson and RSM Dad, archived meeting audio is available on the city's website. Here's the link: http://www.cityofrsm.org/gov/council/agenda_2011.asp
I agree with you on the fact that the problem of benefits and term limits wasn't addressed could that be because everyone couldnt get past :their" interpertation of the "not business friendly" comment? lets ask both men what they mean by that comment before we assume what they mean I kind of think it might have had something to do with the "cost" of starting up a business here in town not anything to do with being friendly to buisnesses always heard assumption is the mother of all f--- ups! seems like theres alot of that going on with this here on Patch