Former O'Dowd Baseball Coach Joel Kaufman Sought on Child Molestation Chrages

By Bay City News Service

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Bay Area baseball coach accused of molestation, a Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman said.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office filed six felony and misdemeanor charges Wednesday against Joel Kaufman, 52, of Orinda.

The charges include two counts of performing lewd acts on a child under 14, and one count each of performing lewd acts on a teenager between 14 and 15 and penetration of a drugged or intoxicated person, Deputy District Attorney Chad Mahalich said.

Kaufman also faces misdemeanor charges of child molestation and unlawfully filming or videotaping someone, Mahalich said.

He was arrested on molestation charges last August but was later released, sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said.

Mahalich said that if found guilty of all charges, Kaufman could face more than 10 years in prison.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Oakland said Kaufman was a part-time baseball coach at Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School from 1999 to 2005. During his tenure there, no incidents of abuse were reported, spokesman Mike Brown said.

For the 2006 baseball season, Kaufman worked at Palo Alto High School as a baseball coach, Palo Alto Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Scott Bowers said. No problems were reported during that time, he said.

Kaufman is listed as the owner of the San Leandro batting cages Triple Play USA on Adams Avenue and as the manager of the California Smoke, a Bay Area-based baseball club for high school students.

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