A former soccer coach for a private club for boys pleaded not guilty on Monday to sex-related charges involving a 15-year-old male player.
Javier Arrioja, 48, of East Los Angeles, answered to four counts of lewd acts on a child age 14 or 15 and one count of sending harmful matter.
He was arrested Feb. 17 at his home in the 100 block of N. Townsend Ave., in East Los Angeles.
He was being held without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail.
Immigration officials have asked that sheriff's authorities turn Arrioja over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on his release from local custody while they investigate possible deportation issues, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for ICE.
Arrioja is accused of assaulting a boy four times between May and November 2011 at the coach's home and at parks, a prosecutor said.
The case came to light when a player alleged to police that the defendant had inappropriately touched him.
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Arrioja is a coach for the “Missioneros,” a soccer club for boys under age 17. He has coached boys and girls soccer teams in the Los Angeles area for over 15 years.
The Missioneros president, Jerry Camacho, told the LA Weekly that Arrioja, a former personal trainer, left the team to host private workouts in September 2010.
Camacho told the Weekly that the only complaints he ever got about Arrioja were that he was "too strict."
Arrioja is due in court again on April 19 for a pre-trial hearing.
If convicted, Arrioja faces a prison term of up to five years, eight months.
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