A former Celebration High School employee and baseball coach arrested in April for allegedly asking teen students for lewd pictures and reportedly touching at least one inappropriately was in court Monday to accept a plea deal for the charges.
Samuel Figueroa, 43, was initially arrested on a number of charges, including sexual assault, engaging in lewd or sexual content against students by an authority figure, lewd and lascivious molestation and conduct, sexual performances by a child and bribery.
But, the Storm junior varsity baseball coach and interim girls varsity basketball coach last year, instead plead no contest to three lesser charges —unlawful use of a communication device, child abuse without bodily harm and an authority figure soliciting sexual or lewd conduct with a student — that allow for him to avoid having to register as a sexual offender.
Based on his plea deal, Figueroa will serve 10 years of probation and is subject to a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew unless he is with family. He will not be able to live within 1,000 feet of any place children congregate and cannot work or volunteer at one, and must pay about $1,130 in court costs. He must subject to a pyschosexual evaluation within one year.
Figueroa left the courtroom — where he was scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 11 for this case — Monday without making any comment.
Originally, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office charged him with 13 counts, adding up to a bail amount of nearly $200,000 that he was held in the Osceola County Jail on. But seven of those counts were dropped, lowering the bail to an amount he posted in May and leave jail — a place he will not be returning to based on the plea deal, as he was credited with the jail time served awaiting release after his arrest.
In March, several Celebration High female students aged 15-18 shared the allegations with their parents, who reported the incidents to law enforcement. They described individual contacts with Figueroa, when he did and said sexually-inappropriate things, including some "messaging" on and off school property.
As part of the investigation, an arrest affidavit contained an interview with a former student who is now an adult that said, when she was 17, she took his cell phone into a bathroom to take pictures — pictures she said she had to take in order for Figueroa to allow her to go back to class. In the affidavit, the student said he first gave her a personal email address to send the photos, but when she claimed the emails didn't go through or there was no internet service, he provided his cell number.
In the report, investigators also noted school video showing him following the student into an administration building closet, and the two coming out minutes later. The victim also mentioned him taking her off campus for lunch and making lewd comments about her mouth while they ate together. This became an everyday routine for the victim, claiming, "There was no way past it."
A second affidavit detailed a conversation another student had with Figueroa in January or February of this year about moving to Tampa. He said he noted his son lived in Tampa so he could visit her, they could "go on their first date" and, "They could drink (alcohol) and smoke (weed) when he visits her." He also solicited photos from her, either in the bathroom and school or while she was getting ready for work — calling it the "new daily routine" — and asked her to bend over a table in his office while writing a pass for her to go back to class one day.
Outside of coaching, as part of his job Figueroa was observed checking in students referred to administration for dress code violations and skipping classes, to be processed for in-school suspension (ISS), according to one student last school year.
