Ex-high school basketball coach accused of sexual misconduct after Northern California sting
Investigators have arrested a former high school girls’ basketball coach in San Joaquin County suspected of communicating with a minor for sex in Sacramento County.
Ronald Ray Lovell, 56, of Tracy was arrested Aug. 26 on a felony charge of communicating with a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release Wednesday evening.
Lovell was booked at the Sacramento County Main Jail and released Monday, according to jail records. Lovell was arraigned Monday and scheduled to return for another hearing Sept. 27 in Sacramento Superior Court.
Lovell also faces five felony charges in this case, according to court records. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office on Monday filed a criminal complaint charging Lovell with two counts of communicating with a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense, two counts of sending harmful material to a minor and one count of arranging a meeting with a minor with a sexual intent.
Investigators from the Sheriff’s Office and the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force arrested Lovell last week.
Sheriff’s officials said Lovell worked for the Tracy Unified School District and was a girls’ sophomore basketball coach at Kimball High School from 2010 through 2015 before he worked as the girls’ varsity basketball coach at West High School. Lovell resigned from the district in September 2019.
Lovell was among 18 men arrested during a five-day undercover sting operation last week in Sacramento County. Investigators from a federal, state, and local law enforcement task force posed as 12- and 13-year-old boys and girls online. Sheriff’s officials said the suspects chatted with the children online and arranged to meet them for sex.
Investigators asked that anyone with information about the allegations against Lovell to call the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office Child Abuse Bureau at 916-874-5191, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office at 209-468-4400 or the Tracy Police Department at 209-831-6550.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Ex-high school basketball coach accused of sexual misconduct after Northern California sting."
