Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Swim Coach Jailed Again on New Child Sex Charges

Former swim school owner Todd Robert Sousa is arrested on suspicion of having sex with another of his teenage students.

A swim coach whose former company taught at three Mission Viejo high schools is back behind bars.

Todd Sousa was jailed Wednesday on new allegations of child sex. His arrest comes about a month after he finished a prison sentence for sex with another 15-year-old swimming school student.

The 38-year-old Irvine man was arrested Wednesday night in Tustin on suspicion of having sex with a second teenage girl. That case allegedly happened more than a year ago, an Orange County sheriff's spokesman said Thursday.

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Sousa, who formerly co-owned Swim Venture Inc. of Laguna Hills, pleaded guilty in October to a slew of felonies related to his relationship with the first girl. 

(Sousa's wife, Jill, said via email on Thursday that she is separated from her husband and "working toward divorce." She also stressed that, "by law, he has and can have absolutely no interest in the swim school. He is not allowed near ANY children or any swim industry." State records show Jill Sousa assumed sole ownership of the school in May 2011.)

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Todd Sousa was first arrested in February 2011 while coaching a swim lesson at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano.

He was eventually convicted of picking up a 15-year-old girl and her friend at the Irvine Spectrum and driving them to his office, where he gave both teenagers alcohol and then had sex with one of the girls in another room while her friend waited.

He accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald and served a portion of his 16-month prison sentence, OCSD spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Sousa's new arrest was prompted by accusations from another 15-year-old swimming student, who told authorities she had sex with him at a hotel near Disneyland, where the two agreed to meet, Amormino said.

After Sousa was released from prison this summer, investigators tracked down the alleged victim based on a tip from an informant, Amormino said.

The girl also told authorities Sousa had sex with her in an office in Lake Forest, according to Amormino, who said the alleged crimes happened between August 2010 and February of last year.

Sousa, who was booked on suspicion of child molestation and underage sex, was being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, Amormino said.


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