STOCKTON - Local and national soccer associations reviewed or revamped screening processes for coaches over the past year after learning of sexual assault charges against a father and son with ties to Stockton's youth soccer community.

U.S. Club Soccer now requires coaches to submit a background check application before they interact with children. The changes came as authorities closed in on Ernie P. Roxas, 53, a former Stockton Youth Soccer Association coach who was arrested near Las Vegas last month on felony charges of rape, lewd acts upon a child and sexual abuse of a child younger than 18.

Roxas' attorney said she was preparing a motion arguing that time had run out for prosecutors to file criminal charges, but San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Angela Hayes said she believes a judge will deny the motion when Roxas returns to court next month.

A woman made the report in March 2006, "many years after it happened," according to Stockton police. Roxas' ex-wife, Virginia Torrez-Summers, said the woman is a relative who made the same accusations against Roxas years ago before rescinding them, saying she had lied.

Roxas taught at Fremont Middle School in Stockton from 1975 to 1999. Torrez-Summers said Roxas coached football, _base_ball and soccer at Edison, Stagg and Lincoln high schools.

"He's been a teacher all his life," said Torrez-Summers, who was married to Roxas from 1970 to 2001. "You would think if he was some big child molester, girls would have said something before, but in all the years I was married to him, none of this stuff ever surfaced."

(By Jason Anderson
Record Staff Writer
May 10, 2007)