SANTA CRUZ -- A former Harbor High soccer coach was sentenced Wednesday to one year in jail, five years' probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender for abusing a teen he met at the school.
The conclusion of the case was a long time coming, as Alexander Napolean Reyes fled to Mexico more than 10 years ago after the teen told a teacher about the abuse. He was arrested in September in Mexico. Both attorneys say he was seeking to return and face the charges.
And, as the sentencing judge noted, no one really got what they wanted out of the case's conclusion. The victim asked for prison, while Reyes' attorney implored the judge to give Reyes a four-month jail term.
Prosecutor Andrew Isaac clung to the middle ground, after agreeing to some plea bargain terms.
Judge Paul Marigonda said he had to look "at the global picture, as I call it."
Reyes cried silently through some of the hearing, as did family members on both sides, especially the victim's mother.
Some of Reyes' family members uttered sarcastic remarks at the victim's mother as she left court after the hearing, a victim witness advocate ushering her down the crowded hallway, shielding her from their looks.
Reyes, who had been out on bail, sobbed and threw himself on his knees when he realized he had to go straight to jail. He put his hands together at his chest, his head turned to the victim's family sitting near him in the front row of the courtroom.
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In a statement that Isaac read in court, the victim called the summer of 1999 the "most cruel and uncomfortable year." She said Reyes had taken what was left of her childhood and had never suspected he was "a predator," because she was busy with homework, friends, activities, family and church.
She said she had seen him out in the community recently, and that the popular campus supervisor and soccer coach appeared to her to be "aged, hopefully with guilt."
She went on to call him weak, abused, cowardly, a "scum bag" and more.
The victim's mother, visibly shaken, explained how devastating it was to her, as an employee of the same school, when a teacher came to her and said her daughter needed to tell her something.
Her daughter told her that "a person trusted by everyone has been taking advantage of me," the mother said.
"My whole world collapsed," she said.
Asking for leniency, Reyes' attorney Mitchell Page called the defendant's behavior pathetic and sad and immature. He readily acknowledged Reyes violated the trust of a student at a school and caused lasting destruction.
"He's a very good person who behaved very badly, very badly, for a time," he said. "... But there is no need to punish further."
Marigonda had the final say.
"Reyes did have a bit of a tortured history," Marigonda said. "But at a school, there is very little room for error."
Marigonda noted how the victim's mother had said they had been on guard for all the years Reyes was missing.
He noted Reyes' lack of record, his willingness and ability to abide by probation terms, and that he was at low-risk of reoffending. He also spoke of the victim's vulnerability and how there was more than one instance of abuse.
Page persisted, calling it "shocking" that Reyes should be taken straight from court to jail.
Marigonda countered that it was more than symbolism.
"Unfortunately, there is punishment involved," Marigonda said. "Ten years is too long, and I'll leave it at that."
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