Ex-girls basketball coach guilty of lewd conduct, also faces lawsuit
He’s convicted of inappropriately touching and speaking to players at Riverside Poly High School
A former girls basketball coach at a Riverside high school has been convicted of three misdemeanor charges related to accusations that he inappropriately touched and spoke to players, and now he and the Riverside Unified School District face a related lawsuit.
On Monday in Superior Court in Riverside, Desmen Niguel Granger, 48, pleaded no contest to two counts of using offensive words in a public place and one count of lewd conduct. Those appeared to be new charges; three counts of annoying or molesting a child, one count of sexual battery and one count of battery while on school property, all misdemeanors, were dismissed.
The case was prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office because of an undisclosed conflict involving the District Attorney’s Office.
Granger, who faced the start of a trial Monday, was sentenced to 10 days in the Riverside County sheriff’s work-release program and one year of probation and was ordered to stay 100 yards away from Riverside Poly High, to not contact three named victims and to not seek employment with any school-sponsored youth sports leagues, court records show.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by attorney Elan B. Zektser on behalf one of the victims, also names Ashley Trotter, an assistant basketball coach. The lawsuit alleges sexual abuse, sexual harassment and failure to report suspected child abuse.
The school district, in its response, denied it was culpable. Granger, in a brief phone interview Wednesday, said he wanted to consult his attorney before commenting. A phone message was left for Trotter.
The lawsuit alleges that in 2019, when Granger was an assistant coach, he commented on the girl’s sexual orientation and embraced the girl and other players in a sexual way. One time, when the girl injured her ankle, Granger made lewd comments to her as he drove her to her car, the lawsuit says.
The girl and other players then complained to the head coach, who was not named in the lawsuit. The head coach convened a meeting of the girls, Granger, Trotter and himself, where he told the girls that their accusations could have serious consequences for Granger and that “the information he was in possession of regarding the defendant perpetrator’s conduct gave him a ‘different opinion’ as to what the minors reported had occurred,” the lawsuit says.
The head coach then urged the girls to meet individually with Granger. Soon after, other school employees learned of the accusations against Granger and reported them.
“Perhaps the most concerning part of this case is that school employees actively tried to quiet these kids into not reporting. We are going to make sure that these kids’ voices are heard,” Zektser said in an interview Wednesday.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, is in its early stages in the court. The next hearing is set for May 24.