Coach Arrested for Alleged Sex Acts With 2 Girls

The coach of boys’ varsity basketball at Esperanza High School in Anaheim has been arrested on suspicion of having sexual relations with two female students over the past year in school classrooms, his home and at other locations, authorities said Wednesday.

Christopher Michael Bruce Lee, 41, was arrested Tuesday evening at the high school on suspicion of oral copulation with a minor, sexual assault and penetration with a foreign object, Brea Police Lt. Tom Christian said.

Lee was released on his own recognizance Wednesday night from the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, jail officials said.

The girls who reported the incidents are Yorba Linda residents, aged 16 and 17, Brea police said. They told a school counselor that the sexual incidents occurred during the past year after Lee “befriended” them, Christian said. The counselor then contacted police and the Orange County Child Abuse Registry.

Neither Christian nor school officials could say when the counselor first notified police.

Lee was hired as an English teacher and coach at the school three years ago, said Tim Van Eck, assistant superintendent for the Placentia Unified School District. Lee, who is married, was placed in a non-teaching assignment when school officials were notified Tuesday evening of the police charges, Van Eck said.

“We expect him to remain there until this matter is resolved,” Van Eck said.

Lee was also removed “indefinitely” as head coach of the basketball team, said school athletic director Jim Patterson. Patterson and former varsity coach Mike Moore will replace Lee.

Word of Lee’s arrest and his removal as head coach came as a surprise to basketball team members, who were told of the situation Wednesday morning.

“The whole team is shocked,” a starting player on the boys’ basketball squad said Wednesday evening.

The student said Principal George Allen gathered the players together during a nutrition break, told them that Lee had been replaced as coach and explained the accusations. None of the players had spoken with Lee since his arrest, the student said.

Allen also told school teachers that Lee had been relieved of his coaching and teaching duties but with no explanation of what had occurred and with instructions not to talk with anyone about the incident, said one Esperanza coach who asked not to be named.

When Lee first arrived at the school, he coached the freshman-sophomore basketball team and then the junior varsity squad, before becoming head varsity coach this year, Allen said.

“I’m really surprised,” Allen said of Lee’s arrest. “Beyond that, there’s not really a whole lot I can say.”

Based on the female students’ complaints, Brea police served search warrants Tuesday at Esperanza High School and at Lee’s home on Balboa Island in Newport Beach, Christian said. Lee was taken into custody at the high school at 9 p.m.

“Apparently the (sexual) incidents occurred at a variety of locations, including the high school in a classroom, at his residence and in Yorba Linda,” Christian said.

Christian said he did not know if any of the alleged incidents occurred at the students’ homes or whether the girls were in his English class.

Times staff writers Elliott Teaford, Steve Lowery and Chris Foster contributed to this article.