A former Skyview High School teacher and baseball coach who was arrested last year on sex abuse charges was sentenced Thursday to five years of probation.
Eric M. Estes, 42, of Vancouver, pleaded guilty in January to abusing a teenage boy in Maryland in 1997. At the time, Estes was a right-handed pitcher for the Frederick Keys, a minor league baseball team, and he roomed with the victim’s family.
On Thursday, the mother of Estes’ victim told a judge in Frederick that she once considered the 20 minor league baseball players she welcomed into her home as her sons. She said her trust was betrayed and her family shattered by Estes.
Estes apologized in court. He resigned from his teaching and head coaching job at Vancouver’s Skyview High School after pleading guilty in January. He had taught social studies and coached Skyview to the Class 4A state baseball championship in 2013, the first state title in the program’s history.
In 2007, the Frederick Police Department began investigating allegations that Estes inappropriately touched and engaged in sexual contact with a teenage boy when he was in Maryland. According to a police news release, the case was investigated but suspended because of a lack of adequate information.
Last year, the Vancouver Police Department contacted the Frederick police after learning new information related to the 2007 investigation. As a result, investigators from the Frederick Police Department, Vancouver Police Department and Clark County Sheriff’s Office worked together to reopen the investigation.
According to Frederick police, investigators were able to confirm the initial allegations when Estes was re-interviewed in Vancouver. In May of last year, Vancouver Public Schools placed Estes on paid administrative leave. In June, he was charged in a Maryland court with child abuse, sex offense and attempted sex offense.
The victim’s mother says she would have preferred that Estes get the maximum 15-year prison sentence. Prosecutors say the age of the case and the fact that Estes has an otherwise clean record led them to recommend probation.
A spokesperson with Vancouver Public Schools previously said it had not received any reports or allegations of misconduct directed at Estes during the 14 years he worked for the school district.
