Garland Soccer Coach Faces Child Abuse Charge

Garland police have arrested a youth soccer coach accused of sexually abusing one of his players.

Police arrested Bernardo Mondragon-Guzman on Tuesday and charged him with continuous sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.

When police asked the 10-year-old victim if he knew why he was being questioned, he said “because his coach rapes him," according to the arrest affadavit.

The report goes on to say that Mondragon-Guzman would tell the boy's mother that he was taking her son to the store but would take him to Jack in the Box and then to his Garland house, where he had sex with him.

The victim told police it happened "four or five times." He was also able to provide a detailed description of the inside of his coach's house and car, both locations where the alleged assaults took place.

Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said Mondragon-Guzman allegedly abused the 10-year-old boy for the past two years.

Police said Mondragon-Guzman coached children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old through the Garland Soccer Assocation.

Harn said Mondragon-Guzman had been coaching for the past five years. The department is still investigating how he starting coaching for the soccer league.

"It's a big league. It's a well-known league. It's run really well," Harn said. "And this is one of those unfortunate times and incidents that we've got a coach abusing a child."

Investigators said they believe there may be unreported offenses.

Parents at Winters Park Soccer field, where teams practice, said it is hard to fathom that a trusted person would abuse a child.

"There's too many people out there that don't know the difference between right and wrong," mother Kim Blankenship said. "It concerns me as a mom, and I've had both boys and girls. It's not acceptable and people need to understand that -- it's not acceptable."

"It freaks me out," said Jason Carver, whose parents live next door to Mondragon-Guzman. "This is a pretty decent neighborhood -- it's a bedroom community with plenty of families and lots of kids in the area."

Carver said he believes the coach has two children of his own.

"I hope they punish him to the full extent of the law and justice prevails, because that's wrong ... That's just disgusting. It destroys those children's lives," he said.

Mondragon-Guzman has also been placed on an immigration hold, which means federal agents have reason to believe he is in the country illegally.

Police are asking parents who may be concerned over their child's relationship with Mondragon-Guzman to contact Detective Galvan at 972-205-2082.