Trial ends for Bay Area tennis coach accused of molesting boys

MARTINEZ — A Contra Costa jury is deliberating in the trial of Normandie Burgos, a once-prominent Bay Area tennis coach who is facing 60 counts of molesting teen students.

On Tuesday, prosecutor Jordan Sanders and defense lawyer Michael Coffino gave jurors their closing arguments, following a week of testimony that included four former students of Burgos testifying about alleged sexual misconduct going back to the early 2000s. Burgos is on trial for charges that allege he molested two teen boys during a three-year period ending in 2017.

“Over the course of this trial, you saw the evolution of a child predator,” Sanders told the jury at the start of his statement. He said on numerous occasions, Burgos had placed the boys under duress by threatening to impede their budding tennis careers.

Coffino spent most of his time attacking a fraction of the charges, the more serious counts that allege forcible sex acts against minors. He said even if jurors believed the alleged victims, the prosecution had failed to prove the boys had been placed under duress.

“Frankly, these are not forcible sex crimes,” Coffino said, later asking jurors if they would agree to “unwanted sex” if the consequence for refusing was not getting to engage in their hobbies as much as they’d like.

The trial process is familiar to Burgos, who was a tennis coach at Tamalpais High School in 2006 when he was accused of inappropriately touching two students. In 2010 he went on trial and jurors were unable to reach a verdict, resulting in charges being dropped, but both of his accusers from that case testified in this trial as well.

The evidence against Burgos in this case includes a secretly-recorded video taken by one of the boys, in which Burgos is seeing agreeing with the boy that they had sex. During trial, Burgos took the stand and denied any sexual contact had taken place.

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