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Rodriguez was a girls junior varsity volleyball coach and attendance teacher at RHHS.
By Forum Staff
A Queens High School teacher has been convicted of sending sexually explicit material to a female student and will face up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced.
Luis Rodriguez, 45, of Freeport, Long Island, a girls junior varsity volleyball coach at Richmond Hill High School and a former attendance teacher, has been convicted of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance and other charges for engaging in sexually explicit communications with a fifteen-year- old member of the volleyball team from October 2014, through November 2014.
“The defendant was a coach and teacher – someone whom parents trusted their children would be safe with. This man, however, violated that trust. A jury has found the defendant guilty of enticing a teenage girl to send him nude pictures of herself and of sending the girl a video of himself masturbating, District Attorney Brown said. “This coach used an extracurricular school activity to prey on this young victim. This case should serve as a clear and unmistakable warning that law enforcement will arrest sexual predators and we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
Following an eight-day trial, a jury yesterday found the defendant guilty of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, first-degree disseminating indecent material to minors and endangering the welfare of a child. The defendant was remanded into custody following the conviction. Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced on January 12, 2017, at which time he faces up to seven years in prison.
According to trial testimony, at various times between October 1, 2014, and November 7, 2014, Rodriguez texted or used the FaceTime video chat feature to send sexually explicit messages to a then-15-year-old female student who he coached in volleyball. During these conversations, Rodriguez would ask the girl to inappropriately touch herself and to take and send him naked pictures of herself, as well as telling her that he wanted to engage in sexual intercourse and have oral sex with her. The defendant, during this same period of time, sent a video message to the student’s cell phone showing himself masturbating.
