Shaun Hertlein, a former Goleta youth pastor and high school football coach, has pleaded guilty to possessing more than 600 images of child pornography and will be sentenced next month to two years in state prison. Hertlein’s plea deal with prosecutors also carries a lifetime sex offender registration.
Hertlein, 42, was arrested in May in connection with a Sheriff’s Office investigation. Initial charging documents alleged that, in addition to the cache of lewd images, he had also sent a photo of a penis to a 9-year-old girl and a photo and video of a male masturbating to a 10-year-old girl.
At the time, Hertlein served as a youth pastor for SouthCoast Church and as an assistant coach for Dos Pueblos High School’s freshman football team. He was also affiliated with the Santa Barbara Fellowship of Christian Athletes. All three organizations have since cut ties with him. Hertlein’s wife, with whom he shares two children, filed for divorce.
Hertlein had no previous criminal record and passed background checks by both the church, where he had worked for many years, and the Santa Barbara Unified School District. “Like you, we never saw this coming,” said a SouthCoast representative shortly after his arrest.
When detectives served a search warrant on Hertlein’s home in May and before they took him into custody, they located “over 20 loaded, unsecured firearms in the residence,” a Sheriff’s report states. Authorities obtained an emergency protective order to seize the guns, noting his wife feared “retaliation from Shaun” and that church members worried he would “shoot up the church.”
Hertlein remains in custody without bail. He will appear in court November 3 for his sentencing hearing. His attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
