Anaheim UHSD superintendent wrote letter of recommendation for Kennedy principal who failed to report sexual abuse allegations

Anaheim Union High School District Superintendent Michael Matsuda wrote a letter of recommendation to the Duarte Unified School District on behalf of a Kennedy High School principal who police said failed to report sexual misconduct allegations to law enforcement or Child Protective Services as mandated by California law.

A Kennedy water polo coach allegedly began sexually abusing two female players and continued abusing a third after Kennedy’s principal, Russell Earnest, and at least four other Kennedy employees became aware but failed to report the earlier allegations of sexual abuse.

Earnest told a detective that he was aware of allegations against the coach more than a year before the coach’s arrest for multiple sex offenses but did not investigate those allegations, according to a police report.

Matsuda’s letter recommending Duarte hire Earnest is among documents obtained by the Southern California News Group that include Earnest’s job application with the Duarte USD.

One of the questions on the Duarte USD application that Earnest filled out on April 20, 2017 was “Have you ever been dismissed or asked to resign from any position?” Earnest checked the “Yes” box.

The next question on the application was “If you answered ‘Yes,’ please explain below.”

“I have voluntarily accepted a reassignment which I will be able to explain when give (SIC) the appropriate opportunity during the selection process,” Earnest wrote.

Multiple Anaheim UHSD employees and Earnest did not respond to questions from the SCNG about circumstances surrounding Earnest’s departure from the school district.

“It doesn’t matter whether Earnest resigned or was fired the (Matsuda) letter sends a resounding ‘hire this guy’ to Duarte,” said Morgan Stewart, an attorney for former Kennedy players suing the district.

Earnest was hired as associate principal at Duarte High School on June 15, 2017 with a salary of $122,895. He continues to be employed in that position at the school.

Joshua Owens, an assistant water polo and swim coach at Kennedy, pleaded guilty last August to one count each of oral copulation with a victim younger than 16, and sexual penetration of a victim younger than 16 and six misdemeanor counts of child annoyance. He was sentenced to six months in jail.

A confidential Buena Park Police Department police report and emails, letters and reports by Kennedy coaches, teachers and administrators obtained by the SCNG show that even when confronted with accounts of Owens’ sexual misconduct with female athletes, some as young as 14, Earnest and other Kennedy employees repeatedly failed to report Owens to law enforcement or CPS. Some of the abuse took allegedly took place in the Kennedy faculty parking lot during school hours.

Owens was initially cleared by a 2015 investigation by a Kennedy athletic director that was completed in less than 24 hours after a Kennedy teacher received emails from the former student raising allegations of sexual abuse against Owens and accusing school employees of ignoring similar allegations a year earlier. Earnest was sent a one-page letter detailing the investigation by Kennedy athletic director Dave Jankowski. The alleged victim was not interviewed by school officials during the investigation and the allegations were not forwarded to law enforcement or CPS, according to police records.

Kennedy employees “never reported (Owens) to authorities despite numerous mandated reporters having the information,” according to police documents. A Kennedy assistant coach reported a new set of allegations to Child Protective Services in November 2016, two years after school employees were first made aware of allegations against Owens. That report led to Owens’ arrest.

Earnest, Kennedy water polo head coach Eric Pierce, Jankowski, Dean Wang, another athletic director, and teacher Ian Sabala, according to a detective who investigated Owens “are all mandated reporters, and yes, (in a) legal sense and the moral sense, they all did have that obligation to report.”

Todd Franssen, then a Buena Park detective, said he was so concerned about Kennedy officials’ failure to report allegations against Owens to authorities that he discussed with the Orange County District Attorney’s office whether Earnest should be charged with the crime of failure to mandatory report.

“It was a discussion that came up,” Franssen, now an investigator for the Orange County DA’s office, said in recent deposition related to a civil suit filed against the Anaheim Union High School District by former Kennedy players.

Earnest has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Matsuda did not respond to a request comment. Anaheim UHSD spokesperson Patricia Karlak has not responded to multiple requests for comment. An attorney for the Anaheim UHSD said he advised district employees not to comment on the Owens matter because of pending litigation.

Duarte USD superintendent Gordon Amerson referred questions to a district spokesperson. The spokesperson said it was district policy not to comment on pending litigation. Duarte High School principal Luis Haro also did not respond to questions from the SCNG. It’s unclear whether Duarte officials followed up in interviews to learn more about Earnest’s yes response to “Have you ever been dismissed or asked to resign from any position?”

Matsuda’s letter of recommendation of Earnest to Duarte, “is first and foremost indicative of the Anaheim High School District and how they accepted these things,” Stewart said.

The Anaheim UHSD, Stewart continued, “had clear evidence of the behavior of Earnest and they accepted it. (The recommendation letter) says not only is it acceptable not to report (sex abuse allegations) it says we’re going to endorse and accept a failed culture at our schools that doesn’t protect its students and protects teachers that did not do their job and did not report (abuse). (The letter) says you didn’t do your job, that’s OK, just go get hired by another district.”

Owens wasn’t the only water polo coach at Kennedy accused of sexual abuse. Bahram Hojreh, also a water polo coach at Kennedy, was arrested last April and charged with nearly two-dozen felony and misdemeanor charges, including lewd acts upon a child, sexual penetration of a minor with a foreign object, child annoyance and sexual battery.

Prosecutors allege that between September 2014 to January 2018; Hojreh touched players’ breasts and genitals, digitally penetrated victims, and coerced girls to touch his genitals while working as a water polo coach at the International Water Polo Club in Los Alamitos. The acts took place during one-on-one coaching sessions between Hojreh and the players, four of whom were 15 years old or younger at the time.

Hojreh, who has denied any wrongdoing, was hired as the girls varsity head coach at Kennedy in August 2017. He was placed on administrative leave by the Anaheim UHSD on Jan. 3, 2018 after district officials became aware of police investigation of Hojreh. He was eventually fired by the district.

On Dec. 13, 2015 Sabala forwarded to Earnest, Jankowski and Wang emails from a former Kennedy student still in touch with players on the school’s girls water polo team. Owens, the former student alleged, was “trying to get at one of the freshman players.”

The former student said she was reluctant to speak up, especially to Eric Pierce, the water polo head coach, and Dean Wang, one of the school’s athletic directors.

“Because this isn’t the first time this assistant coach has tried to date a player on the team,” the former student wrote. “Last year he actually dated one of the players and when it was brought to the attention of the head coach it was quickly swept under the rug.”

The following day, Dec. 14, Jankowski in a letter to Earnest reported the “results of my investigation of the alleged incident communicated to the athletic department via email by former Kennedy student.”

Jankowski said he spoke with Owens. Owens told him that during the previous school year he had taken a Kennedy sophomore through a drive-thru at a local fast food restaurant in his car, according to the letter. The girl’s father was concerned that Owens had taken the girl on a date.

“Coach Owens cleared up the misunderstanding but after meeting with water polo head coach Eric Pierce, agreed the contact was inappropriate and would no longer put himself in a position where he would be alone with a student,” Jankowski wrote Earnest.

Owens, Jankowski wrote, also “suggested the perception he is ‘trying to get at one of the freshman players’” was because he had recently dated the older sister of two then Kennedy team members.

“I reiterated the need for Coach Owens to establish clear boundries (SIC) between himself and the players so as to eliminate perceptions like these as much as possible,” Jankowski wrote. “He assured me he has tried to be very careful about this aspect of coaching the team.”

Jankowski did not interview the alleged victim or the former student who emailed Sabala. Earnest admitted in a recent court filing that he did not interview the alleged victim.

While Earnest twice denied in a recent court filing that he was made aware that Owens was dating Kennedy students, Franssen said in his deposition that Earnest acknowledged “to having documentation…involving some prior allegations that have come forward.”

Franssen said Earnest gave him a copy of the December 2015 email from the former Kennedy student during a November 2016 interview with the detective.

“Yeah, the way I remember it was he referenced an email,” Franssen said in the deposition. “He had printed it out and kind of slowly slit it across the table and gave me that information which was later scanned and included in the police report.”

Franssen was asked by an attorney what Earnest said when he gave him the email?

“I don’t remember what his exact words were, but like I said, it was something to the effect of, basically, here, we have that,” Franssen answered.

“In my opinion on reading body language and how he gave it to me, I kind of formed the opinion, just on reading him, is that he seemed kind of defeated when he handed this to (me)…that he will likely get in trouble for having this information and giving it to me.”

Later Franssen wrote in a confidential police report about the meeting.

“Earnest told me that he was aware of allegations that Owens had dated (a Kennedy player) during a prior school year as well as Owens ‘trying to get at one of the freshman players,’” Franssen said.

“Earnest did not personally investigate the allegations and relied on his staff to do any sort of investigation. This information was never reported to authorities despite numerous mandated reporters having the information.”

A “few weeks” after the November 2016 interview with Earnest, Franssen said in his deposition that he was told by Kennedy High School teachers Earnest had been fired.

Franssen was invited by Anaheim UHSD administrators to attend two meetings on November 29, 2016 with Kennedy water polo and swim team members and their families, according to a police report. Franssen said in his deposition that he spoke to Matsuda at the second meeting about the school’s handling of the Owens case.

“There was some inference there to some sort of liability and — on behalf of the school and school district,” Franssen recalled in his deposition.

On March 24, 2017, four months after Owens was arrested, Matsuda wrote a “letter of recommendation on behalf of Russ Earnest” to Duarte USD officials.

“I have worked closely with Mr. Earnest in his capacity as principal at Kennedy High School,” Matsuda wrote.

“Mr. Earnest also has personal qualities and characteristics that create great working relationships at AUSHD and foster important connections with staff, students, parents, and the greater Anaheim community,” Matsuda also wrote.

Stewart said “I’m not sure what’s going on with Matsuda.

“You’ve got a superintendent endorsing a guy who failed to make a report (about sex abuse allegations),” Stewart continued, “while you have all these employees who failed to report throughout the district.”

Former Anaheim UHSD superintendent Elizabeth Novack and assistant superintendent Denise Selbe also sent letters of recommendation on Earnest’s behalf to Duarte officials.

Novack and Selbe did not respond to requests for comment. It is unclear whether Novack or Selbe were aware of Earnest’s failure to report or the circumstances of his leaving Kennedy.

Novack wrote that Earnest’s “unwavering commitment to move the schoolhouse forward in the best interest of students through exercising best practices is unparalleled.”

“I trusted him explicitly and respected his work, integrity, and ethics,” Novack wrote.

Selbe wrote that she knew Earnest professionally for 17 years.

“Some of the initial qualities I recognized in Mr. Earnest when we began working together were his integrity, humility and work ethic,” she wrote.

Earnest “always maintains the needs of students first.”

“Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give to Mr. Earnest is that I would love for my child to attend a school where he is the principal,” Selbe continued. “I would know that the decisions being made were in the best interest of students and that he was providing an environment where teachers would be supported so they could provide the best environment for the students.”