See Update No. 2 at the bottom of the next page on the charges and punishment the coach faces. Update No. 1 is on the school district placing him on administrative leave.
ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 14, 9:40 A.M.: A “walk on” wrestling coach was arrested Wednesday for alleged felony battery on a Villa Park High School wrestler, the sheriff's department just announced.
Emmanuel Hugo Hernandez, 26, of Orange, allegedly choked out the student who, while unconscious, was punched several times in the head, leaving a visible injury to his right ear area, according to sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock, who added the wrestler had to be treated at a hospital.
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Hernandez left the scene after the incident but, after an investigation, was arrested at his home on suspicion of battery with serious bodily injury. His temporary new home the Orange County Jail, where he is being held on $100,000 bail.
According to Hallock, the agency's spokesman:
“During the afternoon wrestling practice on the school's campus, Hernandez grabbed a student member of the wrestling team and placed him in an unauthorized choke hold. Hernandez ignored the victim's attempt to tell him to stop and ultimately rendered the student victim unconscious. Immediately following the student victim being rendered unconscious, Hernandez punched the victim several times in the head causing visible injury near the right ear. Hernandez immediately left the school as medical aid was rendered to the victim. The victim was transported and treated at a local hospital.”
The School Mobile Assessment and Resource Team (SMART) aided sheriff's investigators in the probe.
UPDATE NO. 1, NOV. 14, 5:03 P.M.: As a “walk-on” coach at Villa Park High School since 2010, Emmanuel Hernandez was either a volunteer or paid a stipend, but he did not teach there.
However, he has still been placed on administrative leave because of his arrest, according to the Orange Unified School District.
Sheriff's officials say they don't know what prompted the alleged attack.
UPDATE NO. 2, NOV. 15, 12:15 P.M.: The Orange County District Attorney's office announced Emmanuel Hernandez is to be arraigned today in Santa Ana on one felony count each of child abuse and battery causing serious bodily injury.
He faces up to six years in state prison with a conviction prosecutors added.
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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.