A former assistant baseball coach at Celebration High School remains in the Osceola County Jail on $184,000 bond this week after being arrested on a string of charges after multiple students at the school told police he had been requesting explicit photos of CHS students and touching some of them.
These reports had been going on for weeks, and now detectives are trying to determine if there are more victims going back months, and even years.
Samuel Enrique Figueroa, 43, was formally arrested Thursday, April 6, and the list of charges is extensive: lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd and lascivious conduct, sexual performance by a child, unlawful use of a communication device, offenses against students by an authority figure and indecent, lewd or lascivious touching of certain minors. Additional charges of sexual assault by a 24-yearold or older on a victim 1617 years old and soliciting lewd conduct with a student by an authority figure were added over the weekend, when he made his first appearance before a judge, who ordered him held on the charges at the six-figure bond.
At a press conference the day of the arrest, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez noted several female students at the school aged 15-18 came forward, after sharing the allegations with their parents in the last few weeks. That timeframe would correspond with Spring Break during the second week of March.
Lopez said the victims described individual contacts with Figueroa, when he did and said sexually-inappropriate things, including some “messaging” on and off school property.
Sex crimes unit investigators say they expect the investigation into this case to be a long one.
Per the School District, Figueroa was removed from campus when the investigation began, and he resigned his position on March 27. He had been a CHS varsity assistant baseball coach since 2018, when he began working at the school, and this past winter, after two other coaches left the school or were removed from the program, he was the Storm’s impromptu varsity girls basketball coach. A number of the victims were reportedly athletes on Celebration’s sports teams, but it is unknown at this time how many or what sports they play.
Lopez shared that in one case Figueroa, who was employed at Celebration High as a support staff clerk, asked a student go into the bathroom and send him photos of their breasts, and told others how “their bodies got him sexually aroused.” Two other female students came forward to say he touched them inappropriately, and Lopez made reference to “patting fannies.” An investigation revealed other female juvenile victims, all CHS students.
“Since we believe there could be other victims of Mr. Figueroa, we ask if anyone else had an encounter that made them uncomfortable, to please contact us, as we expect there will be further charges filed,” Lopez said. “He has abused his power and position as a sexual deviant lurking in our schools.
“These are things we take very seriously, especially if you want to work in our schools. We will make sure people like this aren’t able to hurt children again. If he’s charged appropriately he will never work in our schools again. I have a daughter, I’m sure some of the fathers would have wanted to respond in a different way.”
Word from at least one Celebration High student is that, 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).
The Sheriff was asked if any of the victims or any other students reported any of the allegations to Celebration High officials. The parent of a CHS student said they received an automated call from school Principal Conner Gilbert Thursday, noting that “at no point should any of the students feel uncomfortable at any time,” and that Figueroa was arrested Thursday and that he is no longer an employee of the district.
Prior to this, Figueroa’s only run in with Osceola or Orange County law were a pair of traffic tickets. Lopez referred to a 2018 battery charge that wasn’t prosecuted by the State Attorney of which there are no court records.
