Boys, Girls, eHarmony Date are Victims of Coach, Bus Driver and Others: OC Law

An Anaheim manufacturing company executive who molested five young boys at his Corona home will be relocating to state prison for 81 years.

A 40-year-old Anaheim man has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting two underage female relatives over a period of several years, while a woman was arraigned on charges that she failed to protect the girls to whom she is also related.

An El Modena High School varsity football coach, already facing charges for an alleged armed, 10-hour standoff on campus with police, is also accused of having a sex with an underage student.

A San Clemente man has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a boy under age 18 and furnishing the minor with marijuana and controlled substances.

An school bus driver for an Orange-based company allegedly tried to have sex with teen boys.

Police are seeking potential victims of a man accused of sexually assaulting someone he met on eHarmony.

Shawn Edward Shaffer received his long prison stretch during sentencing Thursday in Riverside Superior Court, where Judge Mac Fisher also ordered $675,000 in restitution for the emotional and psychological trauma the 56-year-old inflicted on his victims, who are all now in their 20s. A jury in March had found Shaffer guilty of 13 sex-related offenses, including forcible lewd acts on a minor, sodomy of a child under 16 and oral copulation involving a child. The sexual abuse happened between 2004 and 2009, beginning when most of the boys were 11, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s office. Shaffer was working at the time in an executive capacity with Anaheim-based sheet metal manufacturer UDC Corp. He met two of the victims through their father, an employee of the firm, according to prosecutors. Of seven youths who visited Shaffer’s Corona home to swim and take a dip in his hot tub, five were molested at different times, prosecutors say. The Corona Police Department initiated an investigation in March 2015, after victims had confided about what happened to them during therapy sessions or talks with family members.

Talal Chami entered his not guilty plea Friday to 13 felony counts involving underage victims, along with criminal threats, child abuse and endangerment. One victim, who is 14, said she and the other girl, who is 9, had been sexually assaulted by Chami dating back to April 2014. A successful motion to increase Chami’s bail to $5 million included evidence that police arranged a covert call between the defendant and the teen, who was allegedly apologized to for the abuse by Chami—who also threatened to kill her and flee the country if she disclosed what happened. He was arrested trying to get in his car with $1,700 on him, according to the Anaheim Police Department. In seeking the bail increase, prosecutors stated they feared Chami would get money to leave the country from his family in Syria. The female co-defendant is accused of trying to prevent one girl from telling a school counselor about the alleged abuse by not allowing her to go to school. The adult is also accused of having done nothing when the other girl revealed she had been molested.

Michael James Snitzler is the assistant varsity football coach at ElMo High accused of locking himself inside a classroom with a loaded handgun around 10:45 a.m. on April 23 (a Sunday) and not surrendering to Orange Police until 10 hours later. It was during the investigation of that incident that police discovered the 26-year-old’s relationship with a 17-year-old female student, police say. He met her, began texting her and, in March, began a sexual relationship with her, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office, which has charged Snitzler with felony possession of a firearm in a school zone, discharging or attempting to discharge a firearm in a gun-free school zone, misdemeanor possession of ammunition on school property, misdemeanor unlawful sexual intercourse and child annoyance. He could get up to 10 years and six months in state prison. Snitzler has a pre-trial hearing scheduled Friday in Santa Ana.

Jerry Wayne Langley is the 50-year-old bus driver for Transportation Charter Services who regularly had contact with children, according to the Fullerton Police Department. Investigators monitored his social media activity and discovered he allegedly targeted juvenile boys for sex acts.

A meeting with a 13-year-old boy was set up for 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at a Fullerton park, where waiting undercover officers arrested Langley. He was released in less than 24 hours after posting $100,000 bail. Detectives, who fear there are multiple victims throughout Southern California, have urged them to come forward.

Christian Reed is also accused of having had inappropriate conversations with a minor boy. A sheriff’s Special Victims Detail investigator assigned to the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force began a probe on March 24 that ended with a search warrant served at Reed’s residence in San Clemente, where he has lived for about 50 years. Whatever was found led to Reed being booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of five felonies, including furnishing marijuana and controlled substances to a minor and annoying a child under 18 His bail was set at $50,000. However, investigators believe there may be additional victims, claiming Reed allegedly had inappropriate contact with teenage boys since the 1980s.

If you have any information that can help in the probe—including identifying other potential victims of Reed—call Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Longnecker at 714.972.4185 or email sl*********@oc**.org.

Robert Diaz Lua Jr., 35, was arrested April 29 on suspicion of rape, according to the Seal Beach Police Department. The former Merced resident, who now lives in Seal Beach, met the alleged victim through the eHarmony dating website, police say.

Anyone with information about the case, or who believes they were sexually assaulted by the suspect, is asked to contact Seal Beach Det. Jeff Gibson at 562.799.4100, ext. 1109.