WV Youth Soccer Coach Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault on 13-Year-Old Girl

A Sunnyvale man and youth sports coach was arrested Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, police said today.

Emanuele Fabrizio, who is a coach for West Valley Youth Soccer League, was arrested at his apartment Wednesday morning on suspicion of sexually assaulting and committing lewd acts with a minor.

The arrest came after a tip earlier this month from the victim's father, who was concerned about a relationship the teen was having with the longtime kids' sports coach, Sunnyvale Capt. David Verbrugge said. The father contacted police on March 13 “with information he found suspicious,” Verbrugge said.

After conducting a search warrant of Fabrizio's home, police arrested him and booked him into Santa Clara County's main jail, where he remains on $1.5 million bail.

He was set to be arraigned Friday afternoon.

Verbrugge said detectives don’t know if Fabrizio may have victimized other minors during his time as a coach in the Cupertino area. In addition to coaching in the youth league he also conducted private coaching sessions, Verbrugge said.

"He's been a youth coach for a while, so we don't know if there are any other victims but if there are, we'd like them to step forward," he
said.

The 36-year-old is not a registered sex offender, he said. A Emanuele Fabrizio on LinkedIn indicates he is a staff web developer at PayPal, while a Facebook account under the same name says he is an interface engineer at PayPal, but Verbrugge was unable to confirm that. The LinkedIn profile also says Fabrizio attended Foothill College and UC Santa Cruz. The Facebook account says he is from Rome.

Anyone with more information related to the case is asked to call Detective Michael Mendoza at (408) 730-7130. Anyone wishing to leave an anonymous tip may do so via email at SVTIP@tipnow.org.

—Bay City News Service contributed to this report.