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Atascadero youth football coach convicted of upskirting woman

September 21, 2019

Eric Owens

By KAREN VELIE

An Atascadero woman filed a lawsuit Friday against a youth football coach who was recently convicted of filming under the victim’s skirt, and then downloading the film for his own gratification. The conviction did not require his inclusion on the sex offender registry or the loss of his position as a coach and the athletic director for the Atascadero Youth Football League. [Cal Coast Times]

More than five years ago, Tanya and Robert Degnan hired their neighbor and local handyman, from across the street, to work on their home. While her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, was at work, Eric Owens asked Tanya Degnan to get up on a step stool and read the numbers off an electrical unit.

While she read the numbers, Owens placed his phone under her skirt and filmed her crotch while his 3-year-old son stood next to him.

Earlier this year, Owen’s estranged wife discovered the illicit video on his computer.

“His wife called me down there that night,” Tanya Degnan said. “She put it on a hard drive so I would have proof of this. There were other videos they found, but you could not see the faces of those women.”

Tanya Degnan said she was disappointed in prosecutors and in the judge who did not want her to get a restraining order claiming Owens wanted to keep his guns.

“I do not feel I got justice in the case at all,” Tanya Degnan said. “They never contacted me. I wanted a voice. The DA would never reach out to me.”

In August, Owens received a 30-day suspended sentence, three years formal probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $280 fine. The court ordered Owens to stay 50 yards away from the couple, who still see him regularly at youth athletic events.

After learning of the charges, officials with the Atascadero Youth Football League continue to permit Owens to coach children and to serve as their athletic director. League officials did not respond to questions from reporters regarding their decision.

In the lawsuit filed Friday, the Degnans accuse Owens and his business Handy-Home, of invading their privacy for his own morbid and degrading sexual interests. The Degnans are asking for $25,000 or more in damages.

Correction: It was the judge not the district attorney who did not want Tanya Degnan to get a restraining order.


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Shocking! A douchebag is head of the YFL in Atascadero. There’s more than one involved with youth sports in Atascadero. God help them and so sorry you’re going through this Tanya.


0

Why is this bastard allowed to be around children? Fire his butt! Anyone who hires him knowing what he has done has to be nuts.


4

“Correction: It was the judge not the district attorney who did not want Tanya Degnan to get a restraining order.”


Recall this “judge.”


Do not reward his bad judgement.


11

$280 fine? You’ll pay more than that if the CHP catches you going 72 on the 101.


17

There is a local landscape contractor who has defrauded clients and lost their CSLB license under two different names. It is now under Eric Wells’ name. They drive trucks with Utah plates with no registration.


-7

I retract the above comment, wrong handyman named Eric…my apologies.


3

Creep


28

After doing something like that to a woman, a neighbor no less, in front of his 3 year old…and then downloaded it? Are you kidding me? And they really let him continue to coach kids?? C’mon man for the sake of the kids, do the right thing and resign all your youth athletic coaching stuff. I think it might be time to get some help


45

This Eric Owens individual is clearly a scumbag who shouldn’t be involved with Youth Football. But the following comment gave me pause:


“…Tanya Degnan said she was disappointed in prosecutors who did not want her to get a restraining order claiming Owens wanted to keep his guns…”


Unless there’s more to the story, Owens, while a scumbag, didn’t do anything violent. Sans any violence/threat, why would there be a need for a restraining order? Even if a non-violent restraining order was cooked-up, it wouldn’t have resulted in his firearms being confiscated.


As it is, his probation required him to remain 50 yards away from the victim.


Something is “off” with this story.


0