With details of new allegations of improper behavior against then-minors, prosecutors and police have issued additional charges against Samuel Figueroa, the Celebration High School staff member and athletic coach who is suspected of making lewd comments to female students, requesting them send him explicit photos and actually touching some of them.
This week, five charges were filed: two additional ones of offenses against students by authority figures, child abuse without great bodily harm, bribery, and an additional count of illegal use of a two-way communication device.
That brings the number of charges against Figueroa, 43, to 13, including those for lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd and lascivious conduct, sexual performance by a child and indecent, lewd or lascivious touching of certain minors that were levied two weeks ago. The new charges bring his bail figure up from $184,000 to $201,500.
As part of a new investigation that occurred after Figueroa's initial arrest, an arrest affidavit contains an interview with a now 19-year-old who 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 relayed that 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.
School video during that time also shows him following the student into a 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 passed it."
The student noted the closet they entered was where Figueroa, a baseball coach, kept equipment, and they just talked; he never touched or kissed her. "She said it would be mind-blowing, because there'd be days he'd be really motivating, but on the other hand, there'd be days he was really weird."
At another point in the affidavit, the victim said she told a guidance counselor named, "Ms. K," about the allegations, "But was advised, 'If you're not 18, I don't want to know.'"
A second affidavit details a conversation another student had 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.
The Osceola County School District is reportedly opening its own investigation in the matter, after Osceola County Sheriff's investigators said several several female students at the school aged 15-18 started coming forward in March, sharing allegations.
