Morgan Hill Police arrested a 36-year-old man accused of inappropriately touching girls during a dance performance at Sobrato High School.
The suspect, Kevin Cole, of Newark, was working as a production assistant contracted by the organization that produced the Dec. 1 production, according to a press release from MHPD.
Police received a call just after 10pm Dec. 1 reporting an adult male subject had touched two juvenile victims on “intimate areas,” the press release states. The inappropriate contact occurred backstage, as the children were changing costumes during the dance performance.
During the police investigation, officers learned Cole was an independent contractor hired by the dance company that was using the Sobrato venue for their performance, police said.
Cole had been hired to work with sound and lighting support, and not to work with the children participating in the performance, police said.
As soon as Cole’s backstage behavior was observed, the performance production manager and several parents told him to stop assisting with costume changes, according to police.
Cole was positively identified by the victims at the scene, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of multiple counts of annoying or molesting a child younger than 18.
A statement from the Morgan Hill Unified School District said the young victims were not from Morgan Hill. But the district is working with MHPD in seeking any additional information about Cole’s past interaction with groups or students in Morgan Hill.
Cole has worked with several dance and ballet companies including South Valley Ballet, Hip Hop Craze, Music In Motion, South Valley Dance and Charter School of Morgan Hill, police said.
Anyone who has more information or thinks they or their child might be a victim can call MHPD at (408) 779-2101 or (669) 253-4914.
