Courtesy: San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department
A swim instructor in Apple Valley, California has been arrested after a missing 16-year old girl was found hiding in his bedroom, officials said.
The teen has been missing since July 22, 2020. Authorities discovered that she had been communicating with her former swim coach John Casillas, and on August 6th, detectives served a search warrant at his home in San Bernardino.
While police did not identify the teen, her father, Ismael Meza, has identified her as Lexis Meza to local media.
There, she was found hiding in his bedroom at the house where John Casillas’ 62-year old father Alfonso Casillas also lived.
“At the same time, detectives contacted and detained John at a local country club where he taught swim lessons. John and Alfonso were transported to Sheriff’s Headquarters for further investigation,” a release from Apple Valley police said. “Apple Valley and Crimes Against Children Detectives determined that John was aware of the victim’s age and the ongoing search for her. Additionally, Alfonso knew the victim was a juvenile and did not alert law enforcement.”
John Casillas was arrested and booked at West Valley Detention Center on charges of Concealment of a Child from Legal Guardian/Parent. Bail was set at $50,000. He posted bail the day after his arrest and was released from custody. In California, child abduction can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. If tried as a felony, the defendant can be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
The Sheriff’s Department says that an investigation would also be submitted regarding criminal charges against John’s father Alfonso Casillas, who they say “knew the victim was a juvenile and did not alert law enforcement.”
Casillas was the coach of the teen found in his bedroom for “a little bit over a year” at the Desert Aquatics swim club, according to her father. The Sheriff’s Department says that he is employed as a swim instructor at “several different swimming academies,” but did not name those places.
Meza is still a member of Desert Aquatics, which is a USA Swimming club. Casillas has not yet been added to the sanctions database by the US Center for Safe Sport.
As recently as October 29, 2019, a now-deleted post on the Desert Aquatics Facebook page identified Casillas as the club’s head coach.
Has any other team besides Desert had back to back Head Coaches end up in this kind of trouble? The Coach that John replaced: https://staging2.swimswam.com/steven-ortiz-added-to-usa-swimming-banned-list-after-may-arrest/ Not sure why but the linked story missed the fact that Steve Ortiz was the at that time current and long time Head Coach of Desert Aquatics. After his arrest and dismissal, John was the replacement.
I wish SwimSwam hadn’t included the child’s name. Yes, her dad apparently made her name public, but that doesn’t mean she consented to having her name attached to this story.
I agree. And I suspect that swimswam may face some legal ramifications because of this. They have an obligation to protect the child, the actions of someone else (the father) do not release that obligation.
Only 4 years for felony child abduction? Did Jeffrey Epstein write the California penal code?
It’s because abduction is a lose term, it is simply defined legally as the act of acting as a legal guardian while restricting the actual legal guardian from performing the duties. What gets the big time is assault of any kind. Because under abduction laws, if a kid were to run away from home and live somewhere else without that being reported to the government counts as child abduction if the real legal guardian were to pursue the issue.
I think it’s probably pretty rare for ‘child abduction’ to be a standalone charge when all is said-and-done.
Is Desert Aquatics one of those USA Swimming clubs that bans parents from the aquatics facility during practice? Or is it one of those USA Swimming clubs that has a revolving door of coaches that come and go without the club ever sharing the coach’s name and biography with the parents?
What’s the problem with closed practices?
The problem with any situation where parents are not allowed to witness what’s happening with their child is that it doesn’t build trust and confidence, especially in situations where the parents don’t even know who the coach is. Parents are looking for transparency and communication. I’m not talking about parents doing their busybody interrupting on deck during practice – that is never helpful. But parents should have access to witness practice from the bleachers or away from the immediate pool area. Parents will be able to take more notice of the over-friendly and grooming type behaviors that are still happening in USA Swimming clubs. Imagine sending your kid to school, but you have no idea who the teacher is or… Read more »
Do you sit in the back of your kids classroom? When you choose a club you choose to go by their rules, if you don’t like the way a club does things then don’t be a part of that club. You aren’t entitled to make the rules on a team, you’re paying for the coach to coach your kid, if you don’t like the way they do it, don’t let them be the one to coach your kid. And you need to meet more parents cause I think the silent majority are fine with it, which may explain why it happens.
Rules state swim practices must be open and observable. That applies to all teams.
Yep, you’re totally right. The parents are paying for a product and if they don’t like it they should go to the club that has the product in the form and terms they’re paying for! I totally agree, and we chose an open club. Our club, and the club prior were open to parent observation (not interruption!) and both clubs had very high levels of parent participation with officiating, timing, hosting meets, everything. No parent observed every single practice every day but you feel more partnered with your club when it’s transparent and you can show up to watch whenever you want. It’s pretty fun to drop in and watch your kids progress once in a while, which is part… Read more »
I’m curious as to why you think a school classroom and a pool deck are the same thing.. I would also like to point out that school districts have MUCH more stringent standards/rules/crap you just can’t do. And they will get rid of a person as soon as there is a complaint. There’s no oh you can coach until we go through a bullshit board of review, or better the center for SafeSport crap.. both of which are there to mitigate any potential lawsuits.
No matter what the reason was that she ended up in his home, it’s not ok. PERIOD!
Pool decks and pools should be available for parents to observe what’s going on.. done are the… Read more »
This is just sickening
What? The unclarity of the whole situation? Yea that’s annoying. Other than that nothing we know happened that would be sickening
Another USA Swimming Team not Safe Sport Recognized. When is USA Swimming going to take Safe Sport seriously? If USA Swimming had a mandate that each USA Swimming Club becomes Safe Sport Recognized, not only would everyone be educated, but the “see something, say something method” could have helped prevented something like this happening. The LSC is just as responsible as well for not getting all of their clubs SAfe Sport Recognized.
I don’t think it is fair or reasonable to say USA Swimming isn’t taking Safe Sport seriously. USA swimming has been extremely proactive in pushing Safe Sport. Also, I can tell you many teams are taking it very seriously as it looks like all teams may be required to be Safe Sport certified in the near future (which is awesome.)
Yes the LSC is there to support teams in getting certified, but keep in mind, to get the Safe Sport certification, “X” amount of team members, currently registered with that team, need to take certain courses or get certified to meet criteria for SS certification. That’s not exactly easy to do right now with things being lockdown. Also, many families… Read more »
The only thing that USA Swim takes seriously, is spending millions of dollars in attorneys fees, to cover up abuse, Annihilate abuse victims, and do the bare minimum to call it SafeSport. They’re proactive in protecting coaches with a long legacy of abuse (this encompasses al types of abuse). All the club SafeSport recognition crap is another way for them to pass the buck.. they can say- well we offered these trainings, and XYZ club didn’t get certified.. so it’s the club’s fault.
Just like the email that came out yesterday from USAS.. coaching boys to men, and teaching girls to be peer supporters. Pass the buck, pass the buck..
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
The SafeSport certification mandate for clubs is inevitable. That being said, I doubt the course would have dissuaded the coach from doing this
Do we ever just blame the bad guy anymore? As coaches don’t we preach personal responsibility?
While the bad guy should be blamed that still doesn’t help with preventing swimmers coming into contact with the bad guys.
And what does? Please let us know what will finally put an end to child abuse in the world. Evil exists in the world. Teach your children the signs and how to avoid these possible situations.
Papa Don’t Preach
Safe Sport is NOT the answer. It is an everywhere problem and USA Swimming does NOT have the solution. They have a program in place in an effort to prevent them from being responsible for the person’s wrongdoing. It is that simple. When are people going to learn that it is a marketing tool to make people feel better about themselves and the sport. We should be bothered that this continues to happen, but programs like Safe Sport are not some magical sorting hat.
“Bail was set at $50,000 and he posted bail and was released from custody”. It is completely unacceptable for this guy to be walking the streets. For those of you that are not familiar with the way things like this typically go in the southwestern portion of the US, I have good money that this dude will be in Mexico shortly (if he is not already.)
You, like all of us, don’t know the facts of the case. Only snippets. But reading between the lines, one can infer that there is a large possibility that the kid wasn’t held captive but being harbored. Still wrong and against the law, but not dangerous. Let’s what before we pass judgement, low bails are not set in cases where there are captives or possible sexual misconduct.
Agreed. She sounds like a runaway.
An underage runaway with an adult male swim coach who knew she was missing but decided to hide her in his bedroom instead and lie to authorities. Shes the child he’s the adult. Its not the first time we hear of a coach manipulate or take advantage of young naive girls. But lets not pass judgment?!? I’m sure his intentions were strictly bible studies! Shame on you for blaming the victim!
Wow! Was not expecting to open up SwimSwam to this headline😳
Yeah, it’s been a while. No reports of underage sexual assault or, for that matter, mass shootings.