Two former Samohi instructors face music
LAX COURTHOUSE — The former Santa Monica High School coach found guilty of nine felony charges related to sexual relationships he had with three teenage girls will spend two years in jail and carry the status of a sex offender for the rest of his life, the court ruled on Tuesday.
Mike Hearn, 38, was an assistant basketball and football coach at Samohi when he was arrested on June 2, 2004. He was subsequently freed on $42,000 bond.
Hearn pleaded no contest last week to six counts of unlawful sex with a 17-year-old girl, two counts for having oral sex and performing a lewd act upon a 15-year-old girl, and one count for sharing pornographic materials with a third girl, also 15.
Superior Court Judge Katherine Mader sentenced Hearn to two years in state prison on Tuesday. Hearn will be required to register as a sex offender.
School district administrators maintained the 17-year-old girl wasn’t a Samohi student, but said the other two victims were. The girls’ identities were not released because they are minors who are victims of sex crimes, but two of them spoke prior to Hearn’s sentencing, according to court officials.
Sources said Hearn’s family — a wife and children who once attended local schools — moved away from Santa Monica during the court proceedings.
Neither Hearn’s attorney, James Brewer, nor the prosecutor, Kelly Read, would comment on the case.
John Deasy, superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, said Hearn was a seasonal employee who was not rehired after the charges were filed against him.
Deasy said the Santa Monica public schools will continue to offer support in any way they can to the families who have been affected by Hearn’s crimes.
Hearn’s no-contest plea comes just before his case was slated to go to trial, although it had been pushed back for about two months. Hearn was ordered not to harass or assault the three victims and stay at least 100 yards away from the three girls and the Samohi campus.
The victims have been treated at the Stuart House in Santa Monica, which often deals with sexual abuse cases. The Stuart House is overseen by officials from the Rape Treatment Center, based at the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.
Hearn was remanded by law enforcement officials in court on Tuesday.
Samohi in the past year has had its share of employees involved with underage girls.
Carl Hammer, 39, was a former Samohi band director who was sentenced in July following an agreement in which he pleaded no contest to a felony charge of false imprisonment related to a sexual encounter that occurred with a 15-year-old girl on June 6, 2004. By pleading no contest to the false imprisonment charge, Hammer avoided facing at least three years in prison and the status of being a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, according to the DA’s office.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 12, 2005. Read the original PDF.