Private tennis coach accused of sexual acts with minors, Sacramento County officials say

By JONATHAN AYESTAS and ORKO MANNA

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — A Sacramento County man who worked as a private tennis coach was arrested on charges related to sexual acts with a child, officials said.

Kasparas Zemaitelis, 26, faces 10 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child, and was booked into the county main jail on a $10 million bail, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said. Zemaitelis has worked as a private tennis coach to numerous minors in the Sacramento area since 2019.

Lt. Rodney Grassmann, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said one victim, a 15-year-old girl, has come forward so far. The crimes happened to her when she was between the ages of 14 and 15.

“This is an ultimately betrayal of trust, obviously,” Grassmann said. “Parents entrust an individual with their children to teach them a skill and this occurs.”

There may be other victims, but Grassmann said investigators have confirmed the one victim at this point.

Sheila Boxley, President and CEO of The Child Abuse Prevention Center, told KCRA 3 that in cases like this, there is likely more than one victim. Boxley said she encourages other potential victims to make their voices heard.

“This is really certainly very important for any children or the children’s parents to step forward if they do know or suspect such a case,” Boxley said. “I would suggest, too, that if there are other families who have been working with the same coach, that this is certainly an important time for the parents to talk to their children and ask them if there have been any of these things that might have been inappropriate, or that they suspected, or that they’ve had bad feelings about.”

It is unknown if the private lessons Zemaitelis hosted were through just him or an organization. It is also not known how many minors he worked with during his time as a coach.

Zemaitelis is originally from Lithuania, and he played on the men’s tennis team at Sacramento State from 2015 to 2018. According to the website for the ATP Tour, a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men, Zemaitelis also played in professional matches.

Zemaitelis has a court appearance Wednesday.

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