Ex-Coach Gets 10 Years for Tricking Teen Boys to Send Sex Pics

A former Orange County high school teacher and baseball coach, who used a fake woman's Facebook profile to trick 106 underage teenage boys into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos, admitted guilt today and was immediately sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Zachary Joshua Reeder, 31, of Orange, pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing pornography to a minor, two counts each of lewd acts on a child
younger than 14 and contacting a child with the intent to commit a lewd act, and one count each of using a minor for sex acts, committing a lewd act on a child, possession and control of child pornography and distribution of child pornography -- all felonies.

Reeder was a history teacher at Servite High School, an all-boys campus in Anaheim, and also taught history and was a volunteer assistant baseball coach for four seasons at Arnold O. Beckman High School in Irvine. He briefly served as a history teacher and baseball coach at Capistrano Valley Christian School in San Juan Capistrano.

From June 1, 2010, through Jan. 14 of last year, Reeder used the bogus Facebook profile to pretend he was a high school girl and contact teenage boys, Deputy District Attorney Nicole Nicholson said.

The victims were 13 to 17 years old and attended Servite, Beckman, Northwood and Canyon high schools, Nicholson said. Investigators tracked down thousands of photos and videos that the defendant collected from the boys, he said.

Reeder, who was given credit for six days in jail, will have to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence. Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett also ordered the defendant to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Reeder did not make any statements to the judge, and his attorney, David Swanson, declined comment after the hearing.

A mother of one of the victims told Prickett that Reeder took advantage of boys at a “vulnerable” age in a “hyper-sexual culture.”

She called Reeder a “depraved individual” who “knowingly and deliberately used his position as teacher and coach to intentionally prey on young men.”

Another mother said in a letter to the judge, that was read aloud by Nicholson, “He was a role model and he abused that symbol of trust.”

Nicholson said the boys were “feeling shame and embarrassment,” and did not want to attend the hearing. But about 15 parents did attend, and some of them cried when Prickett handed down the sentence.

--City News Service