Volunteer Soccer Coach In Long Beach Arraigned On Child Pornography Charges

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A volunteer who coached a Long Beach youth soccer team has been arraigned on six counts of possession of child pornography, authorities announced Friday.

Robert Warden Phillips of Lake Forest pleaded not guilty Monday to three counts of distribution of child pornography and three counts of possession of child pornography during his initial appearance in federal court.

The defendant coached 12- to 14-year-old girls in the American Youth Soccer Organization league in the fall of 2014, according to Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. But none of the child pornography images are of the girls he coached, Mrozek said.

The 65-year-old was released on $50,000 bond.

Authorities seized three computers, an iPad, an iPhone and several other media devices from Phillips' Lake Forest home in last June. Two of the computers and a thumb drive contained images of child pornography, according to the federal indictment.

"The Task Force began investigating Phillips after receiving multiple tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about sexually explicit images of minors associated with an email address that traced back to the defendant," according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's website.