Eric Johnston, a 21-year old summer league coach for the Folsom Sea Otters in Folsom, California, has been arrested on federal charges of possesion of child pornography and attempted child molestation charges.
Johnston was arrested after arranging to meet, through email, with two minors for sex, according to ABC affiliate News10. After the arrest, he admitted to exchanging child pornography photos as well.
No swim team members are included in these charges, but the team will send a note to parents to inform them of the matter, in the event that there are other victims that have not yet come forward.
The Sea Otters are a large, 300-member summer league program in suburban Sacramento. Johnston has been removed from the coaching section of the team’s website.
The issue of inappropriate and illegal behavior by swim coaches toward children has been intensely focused on the year-round arm of the sport, but the summer league programs deserve equal attention. They have unique challenges, because the coaches are often less-professional than those with USA Swimming clubs and are often closer in age to their athletes.
What’s more, these coaches are often handed a huge level of trust by parents given that they usually come from within the local community and people have known them for a long time.
I am a parent on this team. We were notified before the arrest went public on Wednesday morning. We are all horrified. He was a swimmer on the team until he graduated from high school and then became a coach. He was the last person you would have expected anything like this from. It is almost too disgusting and despicable to imagine the very close contact he had with our children. What is almost as horrifying is that this sting had begun months ago and the government agencies involved, to build the online “relationship” between Eric and the federal agent involved, knowingly allowed him to sign on as a swim coach for the league and prolonged the investigation to get… Read more »
EDHMOM, you should read the full complaint, it is public, though hard to stomach. Law enforcement did NOT know about Eric until the past week. The sting was originally set up for the other man.