Coach jailed in sex case

Police arrest man in Victorville accused of unlawful acts with 15-year-old boy.

A school swim and track coach who has worked throughout the high desert region was arrested Thursday on suspicion of unlawful sex with a 15-year-old boy, Victorville police said.

According to a police statement, Steven Lawrence Ortiz, 58, picked up the boy, who was walking along a street, on April 24 and offered to take him to a homeless shelter.

Instead, the boy told detectives, Ortiz drove him to his own house in Victorville, where they drank alcohol together and engaged in sexual acts, police said. The boy told authorities that he spent the night at Ortiz’s house and was driven home the next morning.

He was there when officers with the Hesperia Police Department, who had received a missing-persons report, arrived. After speaking with the boy, police began an investigation that led to a search warrant being served at Ortiz’s home Thursday; he was subsequently detained and taken to the Victorville Police Department, the police statement said.

The boy was not identified because he is a minor.

Ortiz was booked at the High Desert Detention Center on suspicion of unlawful intercourse with a minor and sodomy. He had been a coach at various schools throughout the area for more than two decades, leading investigators to question whether there could be other victims.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Det. S. Boydston at the Victorville Police Department at (760) 241-2911.