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Ex-wrestling coach gets one year in jail
BY LAURA CORBIN
THE NEWS
A popular former El Toro
High school math teacher and
wrestling coach was sentenced
to one year in Los Angeles
County jail last week for at-
tempting to have sex with a
13-year old girl he met on the
Internet.
The girl was an undercover
FBI agent.
Enoch "Jerry" Jarrett, 52, of
Lake Forest was convicted in
April of attempted lewd acts
with a child under 14 and at-
tempting to send harmful mat-
ter over the Internet and tele-
phone. The FBI arrested
Jarrett in September 1999
when he met with an agent,
dressed as the teen-age girl,at
a Los Angeles mall.
Jarrett continues to assert
his innocence, according to his
attorney Ken Schreiber.
"This guy was a teacher for
30 years. He knows how kids
speak." Schreiber said. "He
thought he was dealing with an
adult pretending to be some-
thing they weren't and playing
a game."
Three taped phone conversa-
tions between Jarrett and the
agent with a "young voice"
were convincing evidence
when played in court, said Los
Angeles County Deputy Dis-
trict Attorney Wendy SegalL
"He talked about how risky
because he could get in
trouble," Segall said. "He
thought he was talking to a
13-year-old girl," Segall said.
Jarrett must turn himself in
Jan. 18 to serve his sentence
which also includes five years
probation. He was ordered to
get psychological counseling,
register as a sex offender, have
only supervised contact with
minors and stay out of Internet
chat rooms.
Jarrett started coaching
football and wrestling at El
Toro High in 1981. His home,
close to the school campus, was
magnet for students who were
friends of the Jarretfs four
sons or players on Jarrett's
teams. Jarrett was suspended
from the post he'd held for
nearly 20 years after his 1999
arrest.
Schreiber said the case
against Jarrett was not clear
and that the sentence will be
devastating.
"There's no claim that he
ever had (illicit) contact with a
teen-age girl in his life,"
"(The sentence) means he
has to do something different.
He can't go back to the teach-
ing he loves."
Segall said Jarrett deserves
to be punished.
"Unfortunately he will never
admit that he has a problem,
but he does," Segall said.
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