The Los Angeles Police Department announced today that it had arrested 40 year old Special Ed assistant and football coach Kevin Thomas for “sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 18.” Thomas, the LAPD says, works at Birmingham High School, but was “recently hired as the varsity defensive coordinator at Canyon High School in Canyon Country.”

This goes beyond the previous “inappropriate conduct” claims that have bedeviled the Hart District in recent weeks; the LAPD claims Thomas sexually assaulted a girl, and they say he may have assaulted other victims.

But does he actually work at Canyon High? The District was quick to issue a denial although it had some odd caveats.

The District told KHTS that Thomas has expressed an interest in coaching at Canyon, but hasn’t “filed a formal application for employment and has not gone through the fingerprinting, application screening, interviews or other processes required for employment in the Hart District,” according to an official in Hart’s HR department.

That, in PR speak, is a non-denial denial. The statement gives the impression that he doesn’t work at Canyon because he hasn’t completed the formal application process. But they’re not explicitly denying that he has worked at Canyon.

The Signal later spoke with district spokeswoman Pat Willett who seemed even less certain about whether Thomas has been working with Canyon’s football program whether in an official capacity or not.

“If he were an employee, he would be put on administrative leave and would have no further contact with any students. Since he is not an employee, that goes double,” Willett told the paper.

Huh?!

If he was not an employee, what was he doing around students in the first place? Does that mean he was just some guy hanging around the Canyon High campus?

At the very least, it sounds like the District has been completely caught off guard by the LAPD’s claim. It seems they just don’t know the status of Thomas, which may not completely be their fault. Why?

Football teams in the SCV function almost like autonomous athletic teams. They routinely “hire” former students to help coach and they’re open to volunteers. To get into a program, you really have to know someone on the official coaching/teaching staff. It’s unclear how much control the district has over that process at the five different high schools, all of which take football very seriously.

In any event, I’m sure the Canyon High principal will be the next one to issue a statement. He ought to at least, the LA Times says he hasn’t returned their call.

The LAPD will release more information at a press conference at 5pm today.

The Racz murder case & investigation will be the focus of a two hour Dateline NBC special tonight on channel 4. The show will focus on John Racz, the former Sheriff’s Deputy who was convicted last year of killing his wife Ann. The Valencia mother of three went missing in 1991 and her body was never found. Read the rest of this entry »

A video showing what could be a Latino youth in Newhall using drugs has been posted on YouTube. Read the rest of this entry »

SCVSheriff.com has a new blog post today adding some more details on a Deputy-involved shooting incident that occurred Friday evening in Canyon Country. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s better than a fictional television drama about a drug-dealing mommy in Stevenson Ranch? How about 1,000 pot plants in a house in North Valencia? That’s right. The SCV Sheriff’s Department, acting on a tip, found a house on Via Estancia drive today in the Tesoro neighborhood with over 1,000 pot plants worth an estimated $1 million.

Yes. Truth is stranger than fiction.

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