A Moorpark woman was asleep in her bed when an accused Los Angeles Rams coach allegedly touched her inappropriately, the prosecution said Friday as the coach’s trial began.
Theodore “Ted“ Rath, the strength and conditioning coach for the NFL team headquartered in the Conejo Valley, has been charged with three counts of misdemeanor sexual battery in the alleged June 2018 incident.
Rath, 35, of Moorpark, has pleaded not guilty to the allegations through his defense attorneys Vicki Podberesky and Bill Haney.
Rath was arrested Jan. 15, five days before the Rams beat New Orleans in the NFC championship game. He was booked into Ventura County jail and released on $5,000 bail, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
Rath is on a leave of absence from the team as the case goes on.
The trial began about 4:30 p.m. Friday in Ventura County Superior Court with Senior Deputy District Attorney Erik Nasarenko laying out for jurors what the 33-year-old alleged victim claims happened that night at her home on Breeze Glen Way.
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The defense did not have an opportunity Friday to give its opening statement.
According to the prosecution, Rath went to the alleged victim’s house about 11:40 p.m. June 15, 2018, to have drinks with her husband and some other friends from the neighborhood.
Rath and his wife had been out with the couple earlier in the evening, the prosecutor said. The defendant’s wife would sometimes get her hair cut by the alleged victim, Nasarenko said. And Rath had met the alleged victim’s husband a few times before that night, he said.
“They knew one another, and it’s in that context I’d like for you to see what happened,” Nasarenko said.
Rath’s wife did not go over to the house and because there weren’t any women to hang out with, the alleged victim decided to go to sleep, Nasarenko said.
The prosecutor told jurors they’d hear in the trial from witnesses who were at the Moorpark home that night. They would describe Rath as intoxicated, but those same witnesses also will testify that they, too, had been drinking that night, Nasarenko said.
The trial is expected to continue at 9 a.m. Monday in Courtroom 46.
Megan Diskin is a courts and breaking news reporter with The Star. Reach her at megan.diskin@vcstar.com or 805-437-0258.