Coach Pleads Guilty to Sex With Student : Courts: The Ventura High School teacher reversed the pleas he entered two weeks ago. He faces between 16 months and six years in prison.

Ventura High School football coach Harvey Kochel pleaded guilty Thursday to having sex with a teen-age student and faces a mandatory prison term of up to six years.

In an unannounced court appearance, Kochel, 48, entered guilty pleas to six felony counts and admitted a special allegation that he abused a position of trust.

Investigators said Kochel engaged in a seven-month-long sexual relationship with the girl, who was 15 when Kochel met her in a health class he taught.

Kochel, suspended without pay when the case surfaced, left the courtroom without explaining why he reversed not-guilty pleas that he entered two weeks ago.

His attorney, Louis B. Samonsky Jr., also declined to explain, saying only, “we feel it is the appropriate thing to do at this time.”

Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clark accepted the guilty pleas and sent the case to Superior Court for sentencing Jan. 15. Clark also ordered the Probation Department to prepare a background report on the case.

Samonsky told Clark that the Jan. 15 sentencing date--which is well past the normal 20-day time limit--is necessary because “there’s a ton of work to be done on this case.” He declined to elaborate.

Kochel’s guilty pleas were the culmination of an agreement worked out in a series of phone calls between his attorney and the Ventura County district attorney’s office, prosecutors said.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors said they will dismiss six other sex-related charges when Kochel is sentenced. But conviction on those charges would not have increased the maximum possible sentence, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth said. She said Kochel faces a minimum term of 16 months in prison and a maximum of six years.

News hit hard among administrators and students that the most successful coach in Ventura High School’s history now faces loss of his freedom as well as his career.

“It’s a black eye to teachers in general,” said Terence M. Kilbride, a 12 1/2-year member of the Ventura Unified School District Board of Education.

“Everybody always worries about sending their kids off to a stranger,” said Kilbride, who is also a deputy district attorney. “And what’s going to happen when you find out that that person has violated their trust? It always makes you wonder about everyone else. That’s the biggest damage Harvey Kochel has done here.”

The Kochel case has spurred the district board to finish earlier plans to form an investigative panel that will look into charges of inappropriate sexual conduct among any teachers, students or staff and report to the board or law enforcement if necessary, Kilbride said.

Jerry Dannenberg, director of certificated personnel for the Ventura Unified School District, said, “We’re saddened by the events of the past few weeks.”

The school board probably will take administrative action to fire Kochel, who was asked by the state to surrender his teaching license soon after he was arrested, Dannenberg said.

While some Ventura High School students greeted news of Kochel’s plea with approval, others said the popular teacher should be spared prison.

“They should make him do community service or something,” said a 15-year-old sophomore on lunch break who would not give his name. “If she willingly did it, I don’t think he should have to go to jail.”

But Aaron Ruiz, a 14-year-old freshman, shook his head as he wolfed a sandwich at a nearby eatery, saying, “It’s sick. Why would a 50-year-old man do that with a 16-year-old girl?”

Ventura High School Principal Jerry Barshay said his staff has offered extra counseling to some students who were emotionally affected by the case.

“It’s a very difficult situation, because he’s a very popular teacher on this campus,” Barshay said.

The guilty pleas came five weeks after Kochel turned himself in to Ventura police on an arrest warrant issued after an investigation of his relationship with the girl, who has not been identified.

Investigators said Kochel, who has been divorced since 1988, began a sexual relationship with the girl that lasted from mid-February until mid-September and included liaisons at his home in Ventura. The investigation began after the girl’s parents noticed changes in her behavior and found letters that Kochel allegedly wrote to the girl, investigators said.

For several years before Kochel’s arrest, rumors were widespread that Kochel had acted improperly with female students, and one former teacher said he even discussed them with the administration, which did nothing.

Even after Kochel turned himself in, school officials denied having received any previous complaints about him.

On Thursday, however, officials said Kochel’s guilty plea allowed them to break their silence on the case and admit that they knew about the rumors and acted on them but could find no proof.

“It’s a matter of public record that there was an investigation conducted years ago by the Police Department,” said Dannenberg, director of certificated personnel for the district.

Police “could not find any evidence because no one would come forward as a victim,” he said. “I would not say (Ventura High officials) have done nothing, they just couldn’t build a case at the time.”

Barshay said the school investigated allegations about Kochel in the past but could do nothing.

He declined to elaborate, citing state personnel privacy laws, but he added, “This administration and the past administration did their job when they were given factual information.”

Prosecutors disclosed that they had looked into similar allegations involving Kochel and another girl a few years ago, but they did not find enough evidence to prosecute. The district attorney’s office is now investigating complaints from other girls who have come forward since Kochel’s arrest, Henke-Dobroth said.

Under the law, sex with a minor is illegal even if the minor consents. Kochel, who had coached the school’s football team since 1981, has been on unpaid leave since his arrest. He also was allowed to remain free on his promise to appear in court.

Dressed in white pants and a dark tweed jacket, Kochel said “Yes, ma’am,” as Deputy Dist. Atty. Saundra T. Brewer recited each of the charges the coach was admitting: one count of touching a 15-year-old with sexual intent; two counts of oral copulation with a person under 16; three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, and the special allegation of abusing a position of trust.

The normally raucous arraignment court was silent as the prosecutor listed the consequences of the guilty pleas. In addition to the mandatory prison term, she said, Kochel will have to register with state and local agencies as a sex offender after his release. He also could be fined up to $20,000 and ordered to pay restitution to the victim.

Kochel remains free on a promise to appear in court for sentencing. Kochel was appointed as head coach at Ventura High School in 1981, a season in which his team lost all 10 games.

The next year, however, he began coaching the Ventura High School Cougars to a 77-35-5 record, and the team has since won or shared six league championships.

Before his arrest, the Cougars had won their first three games and ranked first in The Times Valley poll. But they have lost two of the five games they played since then.