OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Osceola County deputies and Sheriff Marcos Lopez on Thursday escorted a Celebration High School baseball coach, accused of sexual misconduct with at least two students, to a patrol car for his arrest.
Samuel Enrique Figueroa, 43, worked full time in student services at Celebration High School, according to Lopez. At a news conference following the livestreamed escort, Lopez described how several teen girls have come forward to report Figueroa’s alleged sexual harassment against them.
“He will hopefully be staying in jail for a long time. He has abused his power. He’s abused his position and is a sexual deviant who was lurking in our schools. Thanks for the brave students for coming forward and exposing this guy for the monster that he is,” Lopez said.
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Members of the sheriff’s office have been investigating the allegations “over the past few months,” according to a news release. It was described further at the conference that two teenage girls are accusing Figueroa of touching them in a sexual way, with investigators speaking with “several other female juvenile victims, ages ranging from 15 to 18 years,” and encouraging others who may have had such an encounter with Figueroa to come forward.
“In one case, he instructed a student to go into the girls bathroom and take pictures of her breasts and send him these pictures. In other cases, he made vulgar sexual remarks regarding how several students looked and how their bodies get him sexually aroused. Unfortunately, it didn’t just stop there with his sick comments,” Lopez said.
Figueroa faces charges of promoting a sexual performance by a child, unlawful use of a two-way communication device in the commission of a felony, two counts of authority figure soliciting lewd conduct [800.101(2)(C)], lewd and lascivious conduct, sexual battery against a victim 16 and/or 17 years old and two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim between 12 and 16 years old, according to a charging affidavit.
At his first appearance in court Saturday, a judge appointed Figueroa a public defender and a bond amount of $184,000, also commanding that he not return to the school and make no contact with victims.
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