Sean C. Morgan
After pleading guilty and no contest to charges in six separate sex offense cases involving 11 victims, a Lebanon man who served as a volunteer high school wrestling coach at Sweet Home High School was sentenced last week to 18 years in prison.
Linn County Circuit Court Judge Daniel R. Murphy sentenced Joel David Aranda, 26, on Oct. 24.
The court intended to incarcerate Aranda for a minimum of 11 years, eight months.
Aranda is eligible for credit for time served, alternative incarceration programs, good time, earned time and transitional leave for the remaining portion of the sentence, according to court documents.
The sentence also included 10 years of post-prison supervision and fines of $1,400.
On Oct. 20, Aranda pleaded no contest to second-degree sexual abuse and attempting to commit first-degree sodomy and guilty to second-degree sexual abuse, two counts of luring a minor and two counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.
Dismissed were five counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and a single count of luring a minor.
Sweet Home police arrested Aranda, who was a volunteer wrestling coach at Sweet Home High School, on May 11 for offenses committed in March.
Sweet Home Police Department had launched an investigation after receiving information from the Sweet Home School District concerning communications between a Sweet Home High School student and Aranda during the 2015-16 wrestling season, said Police Chief Jeff Lynn. The student’s parents had discovered the communications.
The SHPD school resource officer and detectives from the Sweet Home and Lebanon police departments opened a joint investigation because Aranda lived in Lebanon and had served as a volunteer coach at Lebanon High School during the 2014-15 wrestling season. Linn County Sheriff’s Office also assisted in the investigation.
“He used that position as a volunteer wrestling coach to meet boys, to befriend them and over a process of some months to groom them. He created at least three identities that we know about,” said prosecutor Keith B. Stein during the sentencing hearing. “This was a person they trusted that went into the school and then used his position essentially for evil.”
Sweet Home Det. Cyndi Pichardo described it as “a classic case of grooming.
“He befriended the kids and developed a friendship using his own persona and personality. At some point, he developed a romantic interest in these boys.”
When the boys did not reciprocate, Aranda developed three different online personas as college co-eds, young outgoing college girls, Pichardo said. Through those online personas, he developed relationships with the boys, exchanging graphic images and videos.
“He used these different accounts to solicit from numerous boys,” Stein said. “When all was said and done, we learned about 11 different boys who’d been targeted. Several, at least seven of them, had sent photographs and or some kind of video of themselves that were very sexually charged.”
He used the female personas to suggest they could make money through a modeling agency by posting pictures of themselves, Stein said. Through those personas, Aranda suggested that “if they engaged in homosexual-type erotica then that would earn them more money, and that they should do that with the defendant.”
The female personas would treat Aranda as a third party, and he would invite them over for alcohol, Stein said.
Aranda did have a relationship with one under-aged victim, Stein said, and although in some respects unsuccessful, he plied other victims with alcohol at a party.
“During the forensic analysis of the electronic devices we seized, we gleaned names and numbers from these devices that identified additional victims,” Pichardo said. Investigators also identified additional victims through interviews.
“In this case in particular, it’s really important that people understand that this is not a case of teenage boys who would have done this regardless,” Pichardo said. “These are teenage boys who were tricked quite cleverly.”
She called it a classic case of “catfishing,” luring someone into a relationship with a fake online persona.
One victim’s mother told the court that Aranda’s actions had impacted her son “a great deal with academics, schooling, home.
“He’s affected not just my son but a lot of other victims and our community as well as our wresting program. We need to keep these kind of people off of our streets and away from our innocent children.”
Aranda told the court at his sentencing that he was sorry.
“I should have been a mentor, someone to look up to, but I betrayed the trust that I was given.
“Please forgive me. I want you to know, and I know it doesn’t mean much, but it’s all I have left. I want you to know, and the people in this courtroom, that I will humbly accept this punishment because what I did was very wrong.
“There’s no excuse for what I did. I have destroyed your sense of peace and security. Know that I regret my actions. I wish I could give back to you the peace of mind that I have stolen. I accept full responsibility for the things that I have done.”
Aranda said that he pleaded no contest to two charges because they were false, but he accepted the plea bargain because fighting those two charges would have risked a 40-year sentence instead.
“I have not fought or argued against the charges and wrongdoings that I have done because I did them, and it was wrong,” Aranda said. “I accept responsibility for all that I have done wrong and all that that entails.”
High school Principal Ralph Brown said all prospective volunteers at the school fill out a form, which goes to the Central Office, which conducts the background check.
“A background check was conducted through the Oregon Judicial Information Network,” said Kevin Strong, Sweet Home School District business manager. “The background check revealed no criminal history.”
The New Era found no additional criminal history in a search of the same information network.
Strong said that that new Superintendent Tom Yahraes has been working with high school staff to improve the process for volunteer coaches.
Aranda was initially charged with luring a minor and three counts of online corruption of a child.
The luring charge stemmed from furnishing a minor with a visual representation, explicit verbal description or narrative account of sexual conduct for the purpose of inducing the minor to engage in sexual conduct.
The online corruption charges were removed and replaced with using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct for permitting or compelling a child to participate in sexually explicit conduct for a person to observe or visually record.
The state filed new charges in five additional cases in July and August.
In a second case, Aranda was accused of sexual abuse for subjecting a minor to deviate sexual intercourse, to which the victim did not consent, between July 2015 and May.
In the third case, Aranda was accused of two counts of luring a minor between January and May.
In the fourth, he faced four charges of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct between February and May.
In the fifth case, Aranda was charged with sexual abuse involving a wrestler he coached in March 2014.
In the sixth case, he was charged with sodomy and online corruption involving a student in summer 2015.
Among the victims, four were from the Sweet Home area, Pichardo said. Others were from Lebanon, other parts of Linn County and Philomath.