By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Oct. 31, 2001

OAKLAND — A Tri-Valley youth soccer coach already serving nearly three-years in prison on federal child porn charges is expected to plead guilty this week to three state counts of indecent exposure, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Leroy Garcia, 59, is charged with six counts of exposing himself to young girls in Livermore and Dublin. In an agreement unveiled in court Tuesday, Garcia would plead guilty to three of the charges and face five years' probation, said defense attorney Philip Schnayerson]. Schnayerson told Judge Hugh Walker that Garcia wanted to plead guilty Tuesday. But Walker, citing Judge Ronald Hyde's familiarity with the case, pushed the proceeding to Thursday when Hyde was expected to return to court.

Dressed in yellow jail clothes, Garcia sat quietly Tuesday in the Pleasanton courtroom as lawyers discussed the case privately with Walker.

Garcia was arrested in July 2000 after Livermore police officers, who had been following the coach, said they spotted Garcia exposing himself to a 12-year-old girl as she walked by the truck he was in. Investigators said he was suspected in other similar incidents from April until his arrest.

A federal grand jury indicted Garcia in March 2000 after authorities said he had downloaded about 50 computer images depicting children having sex. He pleaded guilty in November to two federal charges and was sentenced in April of this year to serve 33 months in a Victorville prison.

Garcia, who coached in the California Youth Soccer Association, has a history of sex-related offenses dating to 1963. At least three convictions on indecent exposure charges were set aside in 1976 after he petitioned the court under California law.

Garcia, who coached for Dublin high and Pleasanton schools, must serve at least two years and three months before he is eligible for parole.