Former Nipomo softball coach gets 20 years in rape case

A former Nipomo softball coach was sentenced to nearly 20 years to life in state prison Tuesday for what the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department called “devastating” sex abuse against his adopted daughter that went on for years.

Robert John Bergner, 51, was facing 126 charges but pleaded no contest last month to one felony count of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 and felony lewd acts on a child under 14.

District Attorney Dan Dow at the time defended the plea agreement, noting that Bergner will be 70 years old before he is eligible to seek parole. Bergner has been in custody at the County Jail since his arrest in May.

Bergner was formerly a softball coach for the 12-and-under recreational Nipomo Youth Softball League. The county Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the case, said that an 18-year-old woman contacted deputies in July to report that she had been molested by Bergner beginning when she was 12 and continuing until she fled his home the previous May.

The victim told officers that Bergner raped her more than 100 times between the ages of 12 and 18.

After launching an investigation, detectives with the Sheriff’s Sex Crimes Unit soon arrested Bergner at his home on the 900 block of Primavera Lane in Nipomo.

Because of the plea deal, testimony was never presented in open court. But according to a report by the Probation Department, Bergner, a former contractor, had adopted the victim with her two siblings when she was 6 years old. The report does not make clear whether Bergner and his wife, who have one biological child together, were first the children’s foster parents.

The report states that Bergner began abusing the girl over several years, eventually raping her at age 12, the victim told investigators. She said he became violent when she tried to fight back.

Recorded phone calls between Bergner and his wife from the County Jail showed that his wife was angry at the victim and did not initially believe her accusations, the report said.

“He violated a position of trust as her father, as the husband to the victim’s mother, and as part of the adult circle surrounding the victim, entrusted to care for her at all times and keep her from harm,” the probation report reads. “Everyone involved in this victim’s life has been changed by the defendant’s devastating actions.”

The report concludes that Bergner has not acknowledged responsibility nor expressed remorse for his crimes.

Following his sentence, he was immediately ordered to begin his prison term. A restitution hearing is scheduled for June.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Former Nipomo softball coach gets 20 years in rape case."