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District Court Judge Mike Keasler was not pleased.
On August 23, Scott Fernandes, a 27-year-old youth soccer coach, stood before the judge and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting one of his female players several times in 1994. A popular coach for two competitive soccer clubs and Jesuit College Preparatory School, Fernandes was 24 at the time of the offense. The girl was 15 (“Out of bounds,” Dallas Observer, May 9, 1996).
In exchange for Fernandes’ guilty plea, Assistant District Attorney Keith Anderson–after consultation with the victim and her family–agreed to offer Fernandes probation. The coach could have gotten up to 20 years in prison.
Fernandes’ lawyer, Jim Burnham, tried to convince Keasler to go easy on Fernandes in sentencing details. But the judge was not buying it. The father of a girl not much older than the victim, who is now 18, Keasler read Fernandes the proverbial riot act.
Calling the case “reprehensible,” Keasler told Fernandes, “You were in a position of trust with young people who look up to you. And you twisted that position of trust and took advantage of it with someone the law says is particularly vulnerable, a person under the age of 17.
“I am not so naive to believe that all 16- and 17-year-olds are pure as the driven snow,” Keasler added. “But society has an interest in making sure that they can be.”
Keasler sentenced Fernandes to 10 years’ deferred adjudication, which means that if Fernandes completes this probationary period without any violations, his record will not reflect a finding of guilt. But if he commits a similar crime, the judge can punish him to the full extent of the law–20 years in the penitentiary–a sentence Fernandes would be prevented from appealing. Keasler also insisted that Fernandes be required to register as a convicted sex offender.
In an affidavit filed with the court last spring, the girl alleged that Fernandes, who gave her private soccer skill instruction, first started pressuring her to have sex with him when she was 14. She initially rejected his advances.
When she was 15, she relented, having fallen, she said in the affidavit, under Fernandes’ “influence.” Between June 1993 and June 1994, she and Fernandes had sex three or four times. The girl did not make the allegations against Fernandes until two years later.
Despite the fact that Fernandes pleaded guilty, his supporters–parents of several boys on teams he coached–believe he is innocent.
“The only thing Scott is guilty of is perjuring himself when he plead guilty,” says a parent who describes herself as a “close friend of Scott’s” and wishes to remain nameless. “He just wanted to get it behind him. Since it was his word against hers, he was afraid of how a jury would decide.”
“You should be grateful to your lawyer and the DA and for the graciousness of the victim and her family,” Keasler said. “You have them to thank for probation. Probation in these cases is as rare as hen’s teeth in this court.
