CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. – Some Chino Valley High School parents and students were still in the dark Wednesday about the arrest of a volunteer soccer coach accused of sexual assault of teenager.
Chino Valley School District Superintendent John Scholl told 12 News Wednesday that the district was not investigating the incident internally.
Martha Carbajal’s daughter, Heidi, is a freshman at the school.
The mother said she knows the family of the suspect and was surprised to hear the son of parents she called “respectable,” was behind bars.
Chino Valley police said Jose Eduardo Beltran Romaniz, 22, sexually assaulted the 16-year-old girl after buying teens alcohol and getting drunk with them at a party in early December.
Police documents state Beltran Romaniz admitted to sexual acts with the teenage girl. He told officers she was so intoxicated that she vomited.
The victim is a student at Chino Valley High School, where the suspect graduated.
Scholl said this was Beltran Romaniz’s first season volunteering as a boy’s soccer coach here, but Carbajal’s daughter didn't know what police said happened to one of her schoolmates.
“I haven’t heard anything at all,” Heidi Carbajal said Wednesday.
Wednesday, 12 News was the first to tell several students and parents about the arrest of the 22-year-old. Some said they heard about it on social media, through word of mouth or on the news.
The school district superintendent said they were letting police ask and give all the information.
Scholl assured 12 News that as with all volunteer coaches, the athletic director had told the suspect how interactions between kids and adults should be carried out.
Beltran Romaniz is due back in court on Dec. 29 for a preliminary hearing. His public defender said neither his client nor his client's family would be giving a statement.