Former Medford Soccer Coach Found Guilty of Child Rape

A former Medford soccer coach has been found guilty of charges that he raped a former player who was a teenage girl, according to county prosecutors

Roger Lau, 27, of Medford, was found guilty Wednesday by a Middlesex Superior Court Jury on two counts rape of a child, according to an annoucement from district attorney Gerry Leone.

Lau's co-defendant and fellow coach, Thomas Heinz, was found not guilty in the same trial on a charge of rape of a child by force.

The two defendants coached an under 14 girls soccer league in Medford in 2003 and 2004, when the alleged rapes occurred, prosecutors said.  Heinz was the head coach and Lau was the assistant coach.

The victim was 13-14 years of age and was a player on the defendants' soccer team at the time of the incidents, according to the press release. 

In the spring of 2003, Lau and the victim began talking on the phone and he asked the victim to come to his house to watch a movie, prosecutors said.

Lau picked the defendant up in his vehicle where he brought the victim to his home and raped her, prosecutors said. He allegedly continued to arrange to meet the victim for over a year to have sex with her.

Authorities alleged that on one occasion Heinz assaulted the victim while Lau and another team player were in the room. On a second occasion, prosecutors claimed that Lau and Heinz assaulted the victim at the same time. But Heinz was found not guilty on charges stemming from those incidents.

Lau was arrested on December 21, 2009 on four counts of forcible child rape.  He was arraigned the next morning before Somerville District Court Judge Maurice Flynn and ordered held on $8,000 cash bail with conditions that he has no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 and no coaching, referring, employment or volunteering with children under the age of 16.

Heinz was arrested December 22 on one count of forcible child rape and arraigned that morning before Judge Flynn and ordered released on personal recognizance with conditions that he has no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 and no coaching, referring, employment or volunteering with children under the age of 16.

Lau is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7.

"This defendant has now been found guilty of seriously abusing his authority and violating the trust of one of his young players and her parents, by taking advantage of the girl and raping her on numerous occasions," District Attorney Leone said. "We commend the jury for their just verdict today and thank the victim for bravely coming forward to disclose this defendant's disturbing history of sexual abuse of her."   

The prosecutor assigned to this case is Assistant District Attorney Katelyn Draper of the Middlesex District Attorney's Child Abuse Unit. The victim witness advocate is Susie Marshall.  The Child Interview Specialist is Katie Nugent.

 The information in this report was provided by Cara O'Brien, spokeswoman for Gerry Leone's office.