Child Pornin’ Pianist, Alleged Repeat Sex Offender, Ex-High School Football Coach

A 61-year-old Westminster pianist was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison for child-pornography possession, which he continued to obtain after his arrest.

A 48-year-old Fullerton registered sex offender was charged with indecent exposure.

A 39-year-old coach for an Irvine high school football team was arrested for allegedly trying to have sex with and obtain porn of a minor.

Peter Henry Herz was also ordered last week by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney in Santa Ana to spend a lifetime of supervised release once the 97 month prison terms ends and pay $7,500 to a victim. Herz was a staff keyboard accompanist to the Cal State Fullerton Theater Department and pianist and musical director for Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach from 2003-13. Broadway Performance Systems, an advanced music technology company, includes a photo of Herz from a pageant show in an online promotion of its flagship product, Keyboard Wizard. He came under suspicion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, whose probe revealed he possessed more than 500,000 images and 369 videos depicting child pornography. Herz was freed on bond after his arrest, and while awaiting trial he obtained more child porn images on new digital devices. He pleaded guilty in February to one count of child-pornography possession.

Frank Xavier Vega, who was arrested by Fullerton Police Department officers last Monday, June 12, already pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of indecent exposure and two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance. The felonies had been bumped up from misdemeanors because of Vega’s past, which includes 2006 convictions on three misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure and one of child annoyance. In that case, he also copped to misdemeanor being under the influence of a controlled substance. Other convictions were in 2001, 2004 and 2007 (drug possession) and 2012 (felony drug possession and forgery of public or corporate seals), for which he was sentenced to three years and four months in jail. That’s where Vega was again being held, in lieu of $20,000 bail heading into a scheduled pretrial hearing Thursday.

Jeremy Osso has been fired as University High School football’s defensive coordinator and an Irvine High School instructional assistant under Irvine Unified School District’s zero tolerance policy. He’d been snared by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that includes the Carlsbad Police Department, which arrested the Costa Mesa resident Wednesday on suspicion of communicating with a minor for sex, sending harmful matter to a minor, attempted solicitation of child pornography and burglary. Osso was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail at the Vista Detention Facility in San Diego County. The school district says there is no indication Irvine Unified students are involved. Osso’s Twitter page describes him thusly: “Follower of God, Husband, Father and Football Coach.”

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