Sky View coach arrested for sexting undercover cop posing as 13-year-old
Mar 31, 2022, 8:35 PM | Updated: Apr 1, 2022, 11:01 am
LOGAN, Utah— A Sky View High School soccer coach was arrested Thursday after a lengthy inappropriate text conversation with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.
The soccer coach, identified as Jorge Alejandro Cruz, began to message the undercover officer in December on a popular app for online messaging. Cruz, age 48, reached out to the officer and claimed to be a 15-year-old boy.
He asked for the “girl’s” age and the officer stated they were in eighth grade. According to court documents, “Jorge [Cruz] continued by saying he was ok talking with me and he wouldn’t tell anyone that I was young.”
Immediately after, Cruz asked sexual questions to the undercover officer and requested sexual acts.
In the months that followed, Cruz continued to strike up conversations with this policeman and often requested nude photos.
“I reiterated that I was 13.” Despite that knowledge, Cruz shared multiple nude photos and videos with the officer.
“Last night I had a girl touching [me] after our game,” Cruz said in one message. He appeared to be nervous about the nature of the chat and often mentioned the difference in their ages.
“Jorge told me I was young and he could get in trouble,” court documents state. A few times Cruz mentioned his fear and distrust that he might be talking to an officer.
“Jorge told me he thinks I’m a “cyber cop,” police state in court documents. The conversation ended that day by Jorge telling me “let’s just not talk about sex it all”. I told Jorge that was fine with me.”
However, Cruz didn’t stop. The messages became increasingly graphic as Cruz began to share what he wanted to do with the 13 year old and committed to meeting up on Feb. 8 and 9, but never showed up.
Police, using the handle from the account linked to the email, connected the identity to Cruz.
“I also found Jorge is a youth soccer coach for multiple teams, including at a local high school,” the officer stated.
Cruz has been a coach at Sky View High School for five years and led them to a 4A championship in 2019. He was brought in for questioning and acknowledged he had been a user of the app, but denied any involvement or messaging with an underage girl.
When police began to read him back messages he said, “Jorge said it rang a bell, but he still didn’t remember it well.” Cruz “denied exchanging any explicit images or videos with [the officer]” and stated he “is not interested in minors.”
“Cruz is a youth soccer coach for multiple teams, including a local high school and. Because of Jorge’s position as a soccer coach, he is in a position of trust to multiple minors in the community and has easy access to them,” documents state.
Cruz was booked into jail on four counts of dealing in material harmful to a minor, and three counts of enticing a minor. He is being held without bail.
Cache County School District released the following statement:
“On March 30, 2022, Jorge Cruz, a soccer coach at Sky View High School, was arrested on charges of enticing a minor. The district first learned of the allegations against Mr. Cruz after his arrest. Allegations such as these are taken seriously and Mr. Cruz has been placed on administrative leave pending investigations of charges against him. The district will cooperate fully with any law enforcement investigation. Currently, to the district’s knowledge, no students or anyone else associated with the school is involved.”
