{"id":230023,"date":"2025-09-16T00:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230023\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T00:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:30:15","slug":"l-a-soccer-coach-killed-teen-despite-background-check-family-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230023\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. soccer coach killed teen despite background check, family claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The family of a 13-year-old boy found dead in a roadside ditch earlier this year is suing the city of Los Angeles, claiming parks department officials failed to do a proper background check on the youth soccer coach accused of sexually abusing and murdering the teen. <\/a> <\/p>\n

Oscar Daniel Hernandez and Gladys Bautista Vasquez, the parents of Oscar Omar Rodriguez, filed a notice of claim against the city on Sept. 11, contending the Los Angeles Dept. of Parks & Recreation exposed children to harm by granting Mario Garcia-Aquino a permit to coach youth soccer teams. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Los Angeles, through its permit application and approval process, knew or should have known that Mario Garcia-Aquino would be using city parks solely to groom and sexually abuse children on a daily or weekly basis under the guise of a boys\u2019 soccer club,\u201d read the notice, typically a precursor to a civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\"Gladys <\/p>\n

Gladys Hernandez, mother of Oscar Omar Hernandez, weeps while talking about her son during a news conference outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, CA on April 30, 2025. <\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Oscar played for the Hurricane Valley Boys Soccer Club in the Sylmar area, which Garcia-Aquino coached. The family\u2019s attorney, Michael Carrillo, said the city was negligent by failing to notify parents that he\u2019d twice faced sexual abuse allegations from players in the past. <\/p>\n

The boy was found dead in Ventura County in April, days after traveling to Palmdale to Garcia-Aquino\u2019s home where he was supposed to help his coach make soccer jerseys. Prosecutors have since accused Garcia-Aquino of killing the teen after sexually assaulting him. Oscar died of alcohol poisoning, records show. <\/a> <\/p>\n

Garcia-Aquino is now awaiting trial for Oscar\u2019s murder and the prior sex abuse allegations. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.<\/p>\n

\"Mario <\/p>\n

A police booking photo of Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino, 43, accused of killing 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez on March, 28 2025.<\/p>\n

(Jessica Foster\/Courtesy of Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Depertment)<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Police Department investigated an allegation of sex abuse against Garcia-Aquino in late 2022, officials previously told The Times, but a criminal case was never filed because the victim would not cooperate with law enforcement. A second player accused Garcia-Aquino of abuse in 2024, prompting a sheriff\u2019s department investigation. <\/p>\n

But the L.A. County district attorney\u2019s office took more than 10 months to file charges, a previous Times investigation showed<\/a>, raising questions about whether prosecutors missed a chance to arrest the coach before the alleged killing. <\/p>\n

\"Undated <\/p>\n

Undated handout photo of Oscar Omar Hernandez. The 7th grader was killed March 28 and his body was found five days after he left his Sun Valley home to meet with his coach in Lancaster.<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Hernandez family)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would expect for the LAPD to inform the city that they work for that \u2018Hey maybe this guy should be on the do not permit list,\u2019\u201d said Michael Carrillo, one of the family\u2019s attorneys. \u201cThat would be a very rational reasonable approach. Anything to prevent this man from being around kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia-Aquino is undocumented, and news of his arrest also previously drew a furious response from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which called him a \u201cdepraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country,\u201d in a post on X earlier this year. Carrillo, however, said it would be \u201cwrong\u201d to blame the murder on immigration policies and that the family\u2019s frustration lies with city and county officials. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the city attorney\u2019s office said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. Calls and e-mails to the Department of Parks and Recreation were not returned. Carrillo said he did not know when Garcia-Aquino\u2019s coaching permit was last renewed. <\/p>\n

Garcia-Aquino is due back in court next month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a 13-year-old boy found dead in a roadside ditch earlier this year is suing the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[12854,124153,31142,1582,276,2451,124155,246,124154,2961,224,2444,5337,124151,124152,41538,5312,6617,84457,7271],"class_list":{"0":"post-230023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-attorney","9":"tag-background-check","10":"tag-boy","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-city","14":"tag-department-investigation","15":"tag-family","16":"tag-l-a-soccer-coach","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-mario-garcia-aquino","22":"tag-michael-carrillo","23":"tag-oscar","24":"tag-parks","25":"tag-prosecutor","26":"tag-sex-abuse","27":"tag-teen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115211156011088803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}