Editor's Note: This post was updated at 1:40 p.m. Jan. 30 to include a more comprehensive list of Kelly's employers, as well as a statement to parents from Murrieta Surf, where Kelly served as director of goalkeeper development.
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A Murrieta Valley High School JV girls soccer coach has been arrested on suspicion of felony soliciting a minor for sex and misdemeanor annoying or molesting a child, according to police.
Daniel Ryan Kelly, 26, of Temecula was taken into custody at about 2 p.m. Monday after police learned of an alleged relationship between him and a 16-year-old female student athlete, Murrieta police Lt. Tony Conrad said in a news release.
At the time of his arrest, Kelly, who is also a local club soccer coach, was serving as a walk-on coach for the Murrieta Valley girls junior varsity soccer team, Conrad said.
Kelly works as director of goalkeeper development for Murrieta Surf, according to his Facebook profile.
Murrieta Surf, a club division affiliated with Murrieta Youth Soccer League, sent the following statement to parents Wednesday morning: "Murrieta Surf Soccer Club has made been made aware of a situation involving Dan Kelly. Dan Kelly has been relieved of his duties with the club and has been placed on unpaid leave of absence. Any questions regarding this matter should be directed to the club president and legal staff."
Kelly was also employed by Temecula United and he did private sessions for players from the Hawks and Arsenal in addition to running ran his own camps, Patch has learned.
An in-depth investigation was completed by Murrieta police detectives, Conrad said, after which Kelly was arrested and booked at Southwest Detention Center.
As of Tuesday, Kelly was being held on $25,000 bail, according to sheriff's jail records.
Kelly's employment with the Murrieta Valley Unified School District began during the 2009-2010 school year, according to Karen Parris, spokesperson for the district.
He was not a teacher with the district, police and school officials said.
"He does not hold any other positions," Parris said. "He was a part-time, walk-on assistant coach at Murrieta Mesa for a couple of years. He started last year at Murrieta Valley and this year was the first year he was head JV coach."
As with all coaches, Parris said, Kelly was required to undergo an extensive background check before he was hired at the district. The district requires a clearance certificate, which includes a criminal and fingerprint check through the Department of Justice, she said.
"All of that was done prior to him being hired," Parris said. "And during the course of his employment, there was never any reason to suspect inappropriate conduct."
Parents of Murrieta Valley High School were notified Tuesday of Kelly's arrest via phone and email messages, Parris said.
"He was arrested yesterday and the reason for the delay in notifying parents is police asked us to hold off while they were conducting their investigation," Parris said.
Murrieta police are continuing their investigation to determine if there are any additional victims, according to Conrad.
Anyone with information related to the investigation was asked to contact Detective John Therien at 951-461-6346, or Detective Sgt. Phil Gomez at 951-461-6356. Information can also be provided anonymously through “We Tip” at 1-800-78-CRIME.
Dan is a great keeper trainer and my daughter was coached by him. She greatly improved and absolutley loves training with him. I can tell that she is bummed and can't understand what really happened. I think he is an amazing coach and I have never had any inhibitions about him or his coaching. I hope there is more to the story and this isn't true. It takes two to have a conversation and I'm sure he got sucked into making poor judgement. I hope that he gets to go back to what he does best! Coaching!
Dan has Hawaii ohana that recognize things are always more complex than they first appear. They say, you can never go home again and I can see why. Dan has little support at home, yet he was very supported in the Aloha state where he achieved much. I support him in this difficult time as I believe he is innocent, there being more to this story. Has the victim received counseling for her "injuries." Are there any?
Lets also remember that Dan was arrested, not convicted. Lets also be open to the idea that 16 year old high school girls don't always tell the truth and more often than not Temecula cops have nothing better to do than sit at a stop sign and wait for someone to roll through. Is this a surprise? Yes and no. Yes because I doubt that Dan had ever been approached by a police officer prior to this event. No because it was clear to all his teammates growing up that Dan did not mature socially as quickly as he aged. At the end of the day, one can only blame the person for life changing mistakes like this but I think that had Dan gone to school with the rest of us he would have experienced life, love, and sex at a normal age and more importantly, with girls his age. My heart goes out to the alleged victim and her family, the Kelly family, and the soccer community. I hope our court system gives Dan a fair trial because the local community sure didn't.
He should not ever get the chance to go back to coaching ... He is not the person you want your children around , no matter how good of a coach he is ... I would never let my kids near him ...!
Then the girl says well I didnt tell anyone, my friend DID!! Some of these guys dont have the common sense to not sext or text, or even just answer a text of any kind can look bad. Of course some of these men are flattered also thinking these cute young girls are interested in them and play the game, and then they eventually get in trouble. For whatever reason the story comes out. These girls feel they must stick to a story also to not embarrass themselves or their parents for being a liar(if they are that is) and do not consider they are ruining some mans life. I just hope to God that the police look into these cases so thouroughly there are no loop holes. Just think, any of you men could be wrongly accused of this by a disgruntled teenage girl or boy right? Just like how many cases that come out now that parents never beat or molested their child after being convicted years ago. Finally the child gets up into the 20's and wants to clear it up. Its so very touchy.
I definately am not believing him guilty or innocent at this time. At this time he is accused of it. Also arranging a meeting does NOT mean they were arranging sex.
exactly and some of these kids settle a score just because the teacher or coach refused their attentions, or favored someone other then them for a position. Having put half a dozen daughters through high school with all their girls friends I know from listening to my kids and all the others, watching them, exactly what they talk about, would like to do, how they talk about the teachers etc. Or even school security for heavens sake. IN middle school. Lord the problems some of those young men have with these girls followin gthem around like puppy dogs. Its very sad becasue these girls are missing something somewhere to get so attached to these men.
It seems he is the kind of coach that interacts on the kids level, teachers to are more likely to get accused and/or get these kids to develope a crush. Alot of times because they are getting attention and positive feedback alone that they do not get at home enough. Raising my girls we had a houseful of friends and parents would leave them here for 2/3 days and we would not hear a word from them. It was a huge eye opener once my girls started going to high school and it just got worse. The teenage girls just seemed to mostly be on their own and came here for days at a time, and use my girls clothes and they just voiced they didnt want to go home. No one was there, it was lonely, no one to talk to, no one cooked..........whether it was all true or not I dont know of course, but they did get left here until I finally called their parents to pick them up. I believe these teachers and coaches are fulfilling things these kids are not getting at home and its all causing this high charged sexuality stuff that goes on and is talked about amongst the girls. Then its sort of a contest who can get his attention. Its all sad, and I dont want anyone to go to jail who is not guilty, but I also do want someone hung up if he IS GUILTY. All teachers/coaches need to go through a special class teaching them about this problem that is running rampant.
CPS and the Courts will always believe the child over the parent. Always. Its unfortunately a problem that they have created with all the rules of how we can punish our children, that everything is taboo, and they teach the kids in high school that anyone doing this and that is all against their rights, is against the law etc. etc. and the kids then use it as a tool unfortunately. What is even worse is the attorneys for CPS and the courts know the kids do this, but now their hands are tied because the problem has now been created. You have a child who gets a cell phone taken away go to school the next day and say that when her father took her cell phone she fell and hit her head on a table. Next thing you know CPS is at the house for the father. Not asking the father how many days in the past month his daughter had skipped school and been at someone elses house. Or out at a 19 yr old guys house. Or was caught at curfew with guys in their 20s known to be drug dealers. NO, they dont ask the father why he had to take the phone away, or that the girl fell by accident as she fought him to keep the cell phone. Even if the father tries to get in the problems he has been having with his daughter, including the empty pregnancy tests, condoms, cigarettes and beer cans he found in her bedroom, it will always go back to the FALL and the "child" hitting her head. Its a horrible system.
Its all very sad, whether something serious did happen or not, and girls now a days will not take back a lie for fear of embarrassing themselves but mostly their parents.
Then some teachers, coachs, have facebooks. There needs to be classes taught to these teachers and coachs on what hypersexuality is, why they do it, and how to avoid it, discourage it, and stop it the first day of class instead of ignoring it all and fear pissing off a 16 yr old crying from attention from anyone.!
S thompson why didnt you report him for "speaking with the girls on his team extremely inappropriately"? At a game in front of probably 100 people? He did this? No one, not one parent reported it? Extremely inappropriate? If a coach or teacher had talked to one of my daughters at a game "WITH GIRLS on her team(as a group I presume) extremely inappropriately I would have been all over him right there at the game!!! See that is why its difficult to believe ANYONE often times. Because if you supposedly have seen a sexual action by him, towards the girls on the team, as a parent you go ballistic right? You dont wait months and then put a note in comments when he gets arrested right? I just don't get it.