11:26am | A father and his two sons, charged by the Long Beach City Prosecutor with attacking the Poly High School wrestling coach, pleaded “no contest” yesterday to battery charges. The attack occurred immediately after a high school wrestling match and was preceded by threats made by one of the defendants on his Facebook account.
“All three individuals need to be held accountable for their actions,” said Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert. “This appears to be a premeditated attack. It is outrageous that a personal dispute should spill over into the school setting.”
The charges stem from an incident on January 6, 2011, when Sergio Preciado, Sr., and his two sons, Jesus and Sergio, Jr., launched an attack on Poly wrestling coach Abel Moran at the Poly H.S. gymnasium immediately after a Poly-Lakewood wrestling match.
Many present to watch the wrestling match witnessed the attack on the coach. The day before the attack, defendant Jesus Preciado posted a message on his Facebook page threatening victim Moran. After the match, each defendant attacked Moran separately with defendant Sergio Jr. ultimately flipping Moran over his back.
The case was scheduled for a jury trial yesterday, after the defendants refused to accept a plea bargain with the City Prosecutor. Before the trial began, however, the defendants pled “no-contest” to Judge James Otto who sentenced each defendant to three years of probation and ordered each defendant to perform 30 days of Community Service and complete 26 weeks of anger management classes.