DA declines to charge Moraga tennis coach in sex abuse probe
MARTINEZ — Citing “insufficient evidence,” the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office has declined to charge an East Bay tennis coach arrested in a sex abuse investigation last year.
Michael Roy Howard, 65, was arrested last November after a girl’s mother complaint to Moraga police. Prosecutors reviewed the case against him on Feb. 18, and found “insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt in court,” a spokesman for the office said.
However, the issue doesn’t necessarily end here. Prosecutors say it’s possible they could revisit the decision, and noted a 10-year statute of limitations. Still, the passage of time makes such a filing less likely.
Howard was arrested in November on suspicion of sexual abuse and meeting a minor with lewd intent, court records show. The police investigation started with a teen girl’s mother’s claim that her daughter’s tennis coach had been texting and eventually sexually abused the girl.
Police said at the time they interviewed the girl who alleged she’d been abused at Howard’s Moraga home. Prosecutors didn’t detail the decision not to charge Howard beyond the brief statement.
Howard was released from jail days after his arrest and has been free ever since.