A former assistant track coach at Calvary Chapel High School in Santa Ana probably spent more time in stinky buses than he will in jail after pleading guilty this week to taking videos of a woman changing clothes in a thrift store dressing room.
The 56-year-old Victorville resident was immediately sentenced to four days in jail and three years of informal probation after copping to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. At the time of Ruvolo's arrest last October, prosecutors were seeking others he apparently victimized in case a stronger case with harsher penalties was in order.
Based on court records, no stronger case was ever made, despite evidence police collected that he'd secretly taped other women. No evidence has been publicized suggesting the creepy conduct extended to any campus.
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Did someone say creepy? Last July 11, Ruvolo put his cell phone in a shoe and slid it under a dressing stall at a Salvation Army Family Store in Fountain Valley that was occupied by a 24-year-old woman. When she spotted the phone, Ruvolo snatched the shoe and left.
The cops were called, and a responding Fountain Valley police officer arrived at the store, nosed around and arrested Ruvolo in a nearby neighborhood.
The ex-coach's phone included videos of other women undressing, prosecutors said at the time Ruvolo was charged.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.