Acquitted Ex-Coach Says He’d Take Job Back

Former Compton basketball coach Russell Otis said Tuesday that he would consider returning to his job at Dominguez High School if it were offered to him.

Otis, speaking one day after he was acquitted on charges that he sexually molested one of his players last fall, said returning to the school may be one of his options.

“I would feel comfortable [going back],” Otis, 38, said outside his lawyer’s office in Century City. “There would definitely have to be some changes made and some apologies made.”

A Superior Court jury in Compton found Otis not guilty Monday on one charge each of sodomy with a child under 18, forcible sodomy, oral copulation with a child under 18 and molestation or annoying a child under 18. He faced more than nine years in prison if convicted.

The 17-year-old player who accused Otis of molesting him testified that the coach groped him, performed oral sex on him and sodomized him at Otis’ home in Carson.

Otis, a nationally known coach, was arrested in November. In February, he was fired as coach and physical education instructor because, a state-appointed administrator of the Compton’s school district said, he had failed over 14 years of teaching to obtain permanent credentials.

Otis’ lawyer, Leonard B. Levine, said Tuesday that his client has since finished a college course requirement and “cleared up the credentials problem.”

School district spokesman Fausto Capobianco said he could not speculate about whether the coach would get his job back.

During his years at Dominguez High, Otis led the basketball team to one national and four state championships. He produced top recruits for college teams and served as a consultant for the sports apparel company Nike.

Saul Lankster, a Compton school board member, said Otis is his friend and he would like to see him coaching at Dominguez again. “I think he should be reinstated back into the high school,” Lankster said.

Levine said he hopes Otis can regain the status he enjoyed before the criminal trial.

“Hopefully, if he wants to go back, they’ll welcome him back with open arms,” Levine said. “As I said, he is the same person as he was before these allegations.”