Former volunteer coach in Sacramento area arrested on child sex crime charges
Sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday arrested a youth basketball coach suspected on numerous counts of sex crimes involving minors in Sacramento County.
David Phillip Gallegos, 59, faces eight counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under age 14, as well as four counts of the same crime using force, violence or duress, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release late Tuesday.
The Sheriff’s Office said in the news release that Gallegos worked as an “independent contractor/volunteer” with Folsom High School’s girls’ basketball program until 2018.
However, Folsom Cordova Unified School District in a Wednesday morning statement emailed to The Sacramento Bee said it “denies that David Phillip Gallegos has ever been a volunteer for the Folsom High School girls basketball team, or any other FCUSD class or program.”
“The FCUSD volunteer approval process involves an application, principal approval, TB clearance and fingerprinting, none of which were completed by Gallegos,” district spokesperson Angela Griffin Ankhelyi wrote in the statement. “Furthermore, FCUSD gymnasiums, sports courts and other facilities have never been allowed to be used by Gallegos for his personal training purposes.”
Ankhelyi wrote that Folsom Cordova Unified will cooperate fully with the Sheriff’s Office investigation “should the need arise.”
The Sheriff’s Office said Gallegos also volunteered in the past for the San Juan Unified School District, according to the news release, and ran a private basketball coaching clinic.
The department’s investigation is “active and ongoing,” and anyone with relevant information is urged to contact the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and its child abuse bureau.
Gallegos is being held at the Sacramento County jail downtown with bail set at $2.5 million, booking records show.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 6:39 AM.
