Youth soccer coach gets 14 years in prison

A former youth soccer coach who pleaded guilty to sex-related counts involving a 12-year-old boy was sentenced today to 14 years and eight months in state prison. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Leslie Swain also ordered Jorge Luis Dominguez, 27, of Los Angeles, to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, according to Deputy District Attorney Jane Creighton. Dominguez pleaded guilty March 8 to 10 felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 and one felony count of possession of matter depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct.

At a hearing last month, the boy said through tears, “I was thinking about taking my life and the only reason I didn’t was because I was thinking of my family… “What you did to me was wrong because I was destroyed from the inside.”

Dominguez removed his glasses and wiped tears from his own eyes as the boy spoke. The former soccer coach apologized for his acts and asked for forgiveness, according to the prosecutor. Dominguez met the then-12-year-old boy through his work as a coach at the Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise and the charges involved crimes between June 2009 and June 2011, according to the prosecutor. Dominguez was also a teacher’s aide at Gratts Elementary School in the Westlake district, but he quickly was fired by the Los Angeles Unified School District following his arrest in May 2012.