April 20, 2015 — A wrestling coach is in police custody after being accused of sexual abuse involving 25 male students from Torrance High School near Los Angeles, California.
Thomas Joseph Snider, 47, was arrested last week after being charged with 33 felony counts of inappropriately touching children, and eight misdemeanor counts of molesting children, including child annoyance and lewd acts with children.
KTLA reported that Snider turned himself in and was arrested without incident after a three-month investigation. He is being held on $900,000 bail.
Torrance police Sgt. Paul Kranke said the students ranged in age from 13 to 16 and the alleged misconduct occurred between September 2013 and January 2015, according to the LA Times.
The criminal investigation opened in January after several students accused Snider of sexual misconduct. During the investigation, he was placed on administrative leave.
According to a statement from the Torrance Unified School District:
“Mr. Snider has been a TUSD teacher since 1990, teaching career technical education courses. He was hired as the THS wrestling coach two years ago. As this is a personnel and legal matter, the District will have no further comment pending the outcome of the court proceedings.”
Anyone with information about the case was asked to call the Torrance Police Department Detective Division at 310-618-5570.
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