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Boy Says SoCal Boxing Coach Raped Him

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - A boxing coach raped a 14-year-old student and kept photos of the rape in his home, the boy claims in court.

John Doe sued Anthony Serrano, the Undisputed Champ Boxing Club, Orange County, and the Orange County Youth Commission, claiming Serrano sexually assaulted him at Serrano's home, at the club and during boxing trips.

According to the complaint in Orange County Court, Doe joined the club in 2009, when he was 12, and was coached by Serrano. Serrano liked him, so much that in March 2011 he kissed Doe on the cheek, according to the complaint.

"On or around May or June 2011, Serrano began buying plaintiff gifts including clothes, shoes, and a necklace," the complaint states.

"Between June 2011 to March 2012, plaintiff was sexually abused, including but not limited to rape, by Serrano in Serrano's home, at the boxing club, and in hotels across state lines during boxing-related trips.

"On or around January 2012, Serrano began sending plaintiff text messages and Facebook messages, and began physically stalking plaintiff wherever plaintiff went," Doe says in the complaint.

Doe claims that Serrano also searched the Facebook pages of Doe's friends, trying to find him. Doe's mother contacted the Orange County Youth Commission repeatedly to let them know about Serrano's stalking, but the commission refused to fire Serrano in fear of a wrongful termination suit, according to the complaint.

However, the commission did suspend Serrano in March or April of 2012 for two weeks, during which time Serrano trained boxing students at his own home, according to the complaint.

Around this time, Serrano "showed up at a movie theater where plaintiff and his friends were watching a movie and tried to take plaintiff," Doe says in the complaint.

"On or around late August or early September 2012, plaintiff's mother was asked to identify plaintiff's pictures found in Serrano's home. These were graphic pictures showing Serrano raping plaintiff," Doe says in the complaint.

Doe says he's had had to seek medical counseling to deal with the sexual abuse.

He claims that Orange County and its Youth Commission knew about "reports that Serrano had engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with another boxer at the boxing club in 2008 and failed to take reasonable steps and/or implement reasonable safeguards to ensure that Serrano did not sexually abuse minor boys who he had access to through his position as a boxing coach."

Doe seeks punitive damages for fraud, sexual battery, failure to warn, negligence, negligent hiring and retention, intentional infliction of emotional distress, gender violence and sexual harassment.

He is represented by Thomas Cifarelli, of Irvine.

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