Victims Can Question Valley Coach Convicted Of Molestation

LOS ANGELES, CA — Attorneys for the alleged victims of a child molester who preyed on victims as a San Fernando Valley wrestling coach will have a chance to question the convicted sex offender behind bars. A judge ruled Monday that attorneys for plaintiffs suing Los Angeles Unified School District and the Boys and Girls Club of San Fernando where can depose the man accused of molesting the kids he coached.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Rico's order allows the plaintiffs' attorneys to video record their questioning of 59-year-old Terry Terrell Gillard of Sylmar, who is also a defendant in the civil litigation.

"Gillard is unquestionably a crucial witness relative to his perpetration of the crimes that have led to this civil litigation and in particular his position as a wrestling coach at both LAUSD and the Boys and Girls Club," the plaintiffs' attorneys state in their court papers. "Beyond the plaintiffs, he is among the most crucial witness to the abuse that he perpetrated upon these minors over whom he held so much control."

Gillard is serving a 71-year sentence for abusing the children who trusted him. He was convicted May 7 of three felony counts each of committing a lewd act on a child, lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 and oral copulation of a person under 18, along with 28 felony counts of procuring a child to engage in a lewd act and 10 misdemeanor counts of child molestation.

Gillard victimized children he met through the wrestling teams at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School and the Boys and Girls Club of San Fernando between 1991 and 2017, according to evidence presented during his trial. The victims were between the ages of 11 and 17, according to Deputy District Attorney Cathy Lee.

Evidence presented during the criminal trial showed that Gillard sexually abused children as far back as 1991, when he directed an 11-year old to have sex with an adult woman in the backseat of his Cadillac while he watched from the front seat.

Other criminal trial evidence showed that Gillard directed child wrestlers between 2014 and 2017 to perform sex acts while he watched, including in his vehicles and in a van owned and maintained by the Boys and Girls Club, according to the plaintiff's' lawyers.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.